The Vote: £100k cost of free parking
Recipe for gridlock or boon for business? Brighton and Hove’s politicians have different views about a proposed Christmas gift for drivers. Frank le Duc reports
A row over free parking in underused car parks in Brighton and Hove in the run up to Christmas is due to be resolved today (Tuesday 12). A meeting has been called to decide whether Conservative plans for limited free parking in the city will be put into effect.
The Tories want five car parks to be free on Small Business Saturday on 7 December and on the three Sundays before Christmas – 8, 15 and 22 December. The car parks are in London Road, Regency Square, Trafalgar Street and High Street, off St James’s Street, in Brighton, and in Norton Road, Hove.
The Greens countered with their own proposals last week. These include reduced prices in the London Road and Regency Square car parks in Brighton and free parking in Norton Road, Hove, in the run up to Christmas. They also propose permanently cutting the price of parking in London Road on Sundays.
A decision is scheduled to be taken at a meeting of the Brighton and Hove City Council Policy and Resources Urgency Sub-Committee t on Tuesday 12 November. The sub-committee has three members – one Green, one Conservative and one Labour. When the decision to offer free parking was made at a meeting of the full council on Thursday 24 October, Conservative and Labour councillors voted together, outnumbering the minority Greens.
At the council meeting Conservative councillor Graham Cox said that high parking charges were damaging the reputation of Brighton and Hove. Green council leader Jason Kitcat said that they were not putting off visitors who had come to the city in record numbers. He said that free parking was unnecessary in the run up to Christmas when congestion was worse than usual and cars queued to get into car parks.
Labour leader Warren Morgan said that while his group supported the free parking proposal, it was important that it was cost effective. The council uses revenue from its car parks to fund, among other things, free bus passes for pensioners, road repairs and new cycle lanes. It made a £14.4 million profit last year.
“Suspend the bus lanes so that people can actually get into the city to spend their hard-earned money in our shops”
Labour councillor Anne Meadows went further and called for the bus lanes to be suspended in the run up to Christmas. She said: “Suspend the bus lanes so that those people sitting in their cars back up as far as Pyecombe and on the Lewes Road can actually get into the city to spend their hard-earned money in our shops.” Councillor Sue Shanks said that it would cause gridlock in Brighton.
On Monday Councillor Kitcat said: “Officer analysis of the proposals backed by Labour and Conservatives to provide all-day free parking in city centre car parks just before Christmas shows they’re completely anti-business and could ruin Small Business Saturday.
“These are the busiest shopping weekends of the year when retailers want a fast turnaround in car parks, bringing in as many shoppers as possible. Yet the Labour/Conservative scheme invites a limited number of shoppers to park all day for free, blocking car parks to other shoppers, reducing the number of shoppers in town and causing massive tailbacks, with resulting congestion and pollution.
“Brighton and Hove Bus Company also believes the Labour/Conservative proposals would cause serious delays to their bus services. And to do this damage to our retailers and our city would cost the council £112,000 in lost income.
“At a time of unprecedented central government cuts, deeper this year than ever before, Labour and Conservatives want to hurt retailers and add a further £112,000 in cuts. It’s madness.”
