Parking is such street sorrow update: new charges for Heswall and elsewhere split council

Plans to bring in more parking charges across Wirral have split the council.

Last month, Wirral Council's Environment and Transport Committee voted to bring in charges at off-street car parks which are currently free in places including Bromborough, Bebington, Irby, Hoylake and New Brighton.

That followed the passing of Wirral Council's budget on March 1 in which councillors agreed to generate an additional £1m from car parking charges.

The sum was needed to help the authority balance its budget.

But this move has been 'called-in' by Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors, meaning the decision could be referred back to a committee or full council meeting and potentially get overturned.

The Decision Review Committee will make its decision this evening at a 6pm meeting at New Brighton's Floral Pavilion.

The June committee vote also approved introducing charges in coastal locations which are also currently free. Again, this includes sites in New Brighton and Hoylake, as well as Leasowe and West Kirby.

Another part of the plan was to equalise the fees to be charged across the borough.

Every council-run car park in Wirral which charges would set a fee of £1 per hour for the first four hours, with a maximum charge of £5 for a full day of parking, under the proposal.

Conservative councillors on the committee voted against the move, arguing they did not have enough information to make a decision, while the sole Liberal Democrat councillor Allan Brame abstained over concerns with charging at country parks.

But Labour votes, along with that of Green Party councillor Chris Cooke, were enough to get the motion through.

The LDRS spoke to each of Wirral's four main political parties in the lead up to next week's crunch meeting.

Deputy leader of the Conservative group, Cllr Lesley Rennie, said: "This is the third time in four years that Labour councillors have tried to bring in these unwanted charges, whether it be free car parks on our high streets or our beautiful coastline.

"On each occasion they have been forced to u-turn due to the public backlash. I hope that at the Decision Review Committee, councillors take into account the detrimental impact this will have on our high streets.

"At a time when our local businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic, slapping shoppers with charges in the likes of Bromborough, Pensby, Heswall, and Irby will only cause further hardship."

The Wallasey councillor thought the council had got its priorities wrong.

She added: "Wirral is a leisure peninsula, this will only deter people [from] using much loved attractions such as the model boating lake on the promenade in Wallasey. It's disgraceful that residents will be charged for this privilege.

"Time and again we see Labour-run Wirral Council get its priorities wrong. The government has given Wirral Council more than £200m to support us through the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Yet Labour councillors would rather spend millions on its own buildings than supporting local high streets and residents."

The Liberal Democrats are also concerned about the impact of parking charges.

Cllr Phil Gilchrist, leader of the Lib Dems on the council, said: "I'm urging councillors to look at the unintended consequences of this money raising exercise. The issue is look before you leap. That applies to each of the places on the hit list.

"I have shopped in Bromborough for years. It had four banks, soon it will be left with one. There is one major supermarket left but there are still many small, independent and friendly shops.

"The community association has worked hard to create an attractive place by keeping flowers and planters going. They are volunteers giving their time freely. In April, after the lockdown, the village welcomed returning shoppers.

"There is a real fear that charges will deter shoppers, tipping the balance, chasing some trade away. The potential damage was understood in 2017. The retail park is down the road, round the corner, only two or three minutes away.

"This is a unique situation that has to be recognised."

However, Green Party councillor Chris Cooke disagreed.

He said there were "so many reasons" new parking charges were needed, one of them being the £1m it would raise.

Cllr Cooke added: "We don't accept that a £1 per hour parking charge will destroy businesses.

"If they've survived this far through covid etc, they're not going to cripple under the weight of people having to pay a fair charge for parking.

"There's no evidence for it [destroying businesses], having fewer cars on the road if anything enhances businesses.

"Most people visit local shops either by foot or on buses."

He also thought that free parking was an unfair subsidy for motorists.

Cllr Cooke added: "Because a lot of people don't own cars, they're subsidising motorists who get cheap or free parking.

"That's unfair because on the whole motorists are better off than those who cannot afford cars or choose not to buy them.

"The council has to pay for [the upkeep of] car parks and people should pay for that."

Wirral Labour was not able to respond by the time of publication.

At last month's committee meeting, which voted to bring in new car parking fees, Labour councillor Liz Grey said increasing parking charges was the right thing to do as it meant the council could avoid making cuts put to residents at the end of last year, which included the closure of Europa Pools, the Williamson Art Gallery and getting rid of lollipop men and women.