Cheshire East Council is to consult on proposals to increase parking charges across the borough from March 2019.
The proposals include:
● Increasing the parking price on most Cheshire East Council-owned car parks by 10 pence across each tariff;
● Increasing the charges at car parks by railway stations, which recognises the higher premium charged in the private sector whilst remaining highly competitive and encouraging more sustainable methods of travel to train stations;
● Increasing the cost of resident parking permits;
● Introducing an administration fee for the replacement of parking permits; and
● Introducing some car parks into the car park order meaning parking restrictions can be enforced where needed.
Frank Jordan, executive director of place and acting deputy chief executive said: "It is our responsibility to ensure our car parks are safe, secure and well maintained – and that there is a good turnaround of spaces for visitors and shoppers.
"The money that comes from car parks helps us to do this and ensures that our car parks fund themselves, rather than us having to use money intended for vital frontline services elsewhere.
"For Cheshire East Council, this is not a profit-making scheme. The revenue generated will help to ensure a quality of service that people expect when they come to one of our car parks.
"We strive to make parking as user friendly and supportive to our towns as possible. These proposals do not impact existing car park incentives such as, free after 3pm, leisure centre refunds or the town and parish council four free days allowance.
"While we would prefer to leave things as they are, we continue to be forced to make a range of tough and, at times, unpopular decisions. This is a sign of the pressure local authorities, like ours, face with reductions in funding from central government and increased demand for essential frontline services.
"We have been forced to make millions of pounds of savings year on year, while protecting essential and much-needed frontline services, including those to the most vulnerable in our communities."
The proposal to increase parking charges was included in the council's full budget report 2018/19 and agreed, subject to statutory consultation, at a meeting of full council on 22 February 2018.
Further details about the proposals, and information on how to make a representation, can be found aon the council's website.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Still no solution to to the parking problem, and the Police have a whole host of excuses for doing nothing so residents are left very frustrated. Who will help us?
From the widespread and much opposed destruction of our green spaces to their total inability to deal with the parking debacle on Alderley Road, they prove themselves inept at every opportunity.
Town centre retailers desperately need a boost to help them compete with the convenience of the internet and the major stores that offer acres of free parking. Unfortunately Cheshire East has an active Sales Prevention Officer whose sole task is to extract as much money as possible from local businesses before they go belly up, whilst simultaneously making trading conditions impossibly difficult.
Worthy of particular mention in this latest hare brained scheme is "Increasing the charges at car parks by railway stations" which apparently is intended to "encourage more sustainable methods of travel to train stations." What a profoundly stupid remark, the train IS the sustainable mode of transport but unless the Council have plans to make it stop at everyones front door, people will still need to travel to the station.
Does he nor the Council leader have any idea of the damage being inflicted on our town centres by this greedy, money grabbing strategy? No they haven't, otherwise they would be looking to encourage more visitors to our town centres by making car parking effectively attractive, not by increasing charges.
CE & Wilmslow should be in receipt of many millions of £s via the New Homes Bonus (NHB), the very same NHB this council tried desperately to hide & hoodwink local communities. NHB should be paid to the local communities who can then spend in their own towns to benefit their communities. Rather than have CEC desperately try to cover-up the lost money (money it hadn't told communities about until Residents of Wilmslow (RoW) blew the whole charade wide open) CEC is now attempting to get a stranglehold over the way the remains of the NHB is spent & on what. Wilmslow, for example, could use some of that money to improve car parking facilities in the town, especially as the Leader appears incapable of real leadership in this one area alone.
She & CEC put up this talking quack to spout plainly insulting rubbish. Mr Jordan, Frankly,you should be ashamed for allowing yourself to be used in this way. Have you no moral shame or sense of the ridiculous?
He goes on to tell us the council car parks will "fund themselves" - yes, with the hidden NHB.
All CEC will achieve is to encourage ever more drivers to look for on-street parking opportunities. Frankly, Mr Jordan made no mention of the on-street parking mayhem of Alderley Road & other over-parked roads. Not a mention. Then he blames this disastrous strategy on CE is faced "... with reductions in funding from central government and increased demand for essential frontline services." It is partly short of money because it is profligate,paying, for example, over inflated salaries to incompetent senior officials who prove to not be up to the job then pay them to tend to their gardens- this is only the start of CEs problems but to blame Government for its inability to manage its finances is below contempt. It is also attempting to cover itself over the "increased demand for essential frontline services including those to the most vulnerable in our communities." - see how it is attempting to use the NHB money around Wilmslow, Handforth & Alderley Edge.
CEC leadership is quite clearly proving that it is time for a change, serious change, in the governance of this woefully led authority. That chance voters will come on the 2nd May 2019 and Residents of Wilmslow's candidates will be ready to put People before Party by putting Wilmslow first.
Don't waste your vote, you know the Conservatives have proven they are clearly incapable in CE, 2nd May will be the time for that Independent change.
Anyway, let's look forward to the solutions coming from the survey. Exciting or what?
We all would like to shop in Wilmslow but parking often makes this too difficult, so off to Handforth Dean etc. where parking is free - well it feels like it is. Thus my town is destined to die a slow lingering death. Too costly and too difficult to support local businesses.
Stopped going into Manchester long ago. Too exoensive to Park. Need a bank loan to Park in London. My worry for a long time now is that Cheshire East wants it to be the place to live and work outside of London.
Problem is we have many who are content with this. Time for change at Cheshire East.
Time for change, vote Independent.
On Thursday, Rod Menlove our Conservative councillor for Cheshire East was begging the Police & Crime Commissioner to fix the Alderley Road parking problem. Why? Because Cheshire East refuses to do their job and install yellow lines there. They refuse to do it because it will create more parking problems elsewhere in the town. Problems they have ignored for years and only extra long-term parking capacity will fix. Keeping us safe on Alderley Road though, clearly doesn’t matter to Cheshire East.
Then yesterday we found how much money Cheshire East spent investigating the suspect behaviour of three of its senior staff members. It cost £1 million (yes, you read it right, £1,000,000) to produce the final report. But Cheshire East refuses to publish it, so we have no idea what these directors did or how to prevent it happening again. So, what a waste of money.
Now today, Cheshire East says it wants to DOUBLE the charges to park all day at Wilmslow’s Broadway car park and increase others by 10%. Well that will really help the towns parking problems won’t it? And why is Cheshire East increasing parking costs?
Well wait for it.........................because they want to keep us safe and they have no money!!!
You couldn’t make it up.
The staggering arrogance and incompetence of these people is just mind blowing, so roll on May 2019 when we can finally get rid of them. In the meantime, sign up at http://www.changecheshireeast.co.uk to force some much needed transparency into their daily dodgy dealings.
And breathe…
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow, Wilmslow Town Council
'Worthy of particular mention in this latest hare brained scheme is "Increasing the charges at car parks by railway stations" which apparently is intended to "encourage more sustainable methods of travel to train stations." What a profoundly stupid remark, the train IS the sustainable mode of transport but unless the Council have plans to make it stop at everyones front door, people will still need to travel to the station'.
CEC seem to have forgotten how they slashed bus supported bus services earlier this year, notably during the evening and on Sundays, making it impossible to access the 'sustainable' rail service, by the 'sustainable' bus, therefore forcing car use and surprise, surprise, up go car parking charges. Despite all the comments about them being incompetent and clueless, I suspect they know exactly what they are doing.
UNLESS they (CEC) try to stop the expansion there too
Of course you are doing a survey - Action not Talk please
Will Mr Jordan be frank with us and explain, in plain English please, just what his job title covers and means?
All this will serve to do is displace parking into side streets, restricted areas, footpaths and residential communities.