Wirral Council councillors adjourn public meeting that met to decide on controversial car parking charges proposals

                                                                

By John Brace (Editor)
and
Leonora Brace (Co-Editor)

First publication date: Friday 30th July 2021, 1:18 PM (BST).

Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee (Wirral Council) 14th June 2021

On the 14th June 2021 (which you can watch above) a majority of councillors on Wirral Council’s Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee in a vote that was 6 councillors in favour, 4 against with 1 abstention voted to adopt car parking charges options 1, 3 and 4. Option 1 was to introduce car parking charges for off street car parks that were currently free. Option 3 was to introduce car parking charges at coastal locations (New Brighton, West Kirby, Hoylake, Moreton etc). Option 4 was to have a standard range of charges for both the existing car parks, new locations proposed and applying to both on and off street car parking.

This decision was then “called in” by Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors. Whilst decisions are called in they are not implemented until a decision on the call in is reached.

Decision Review Committee (Wirral Council) 29th July 2021

Yesterday evening (29th July 2021) saw Wirral Council’s Decision Review Committee meet to review the decision (you can watch video of this meeting above).

The meeting lasted (if two short adjournments are included) for over 5 hours.

However in a nutshell, retail businesses were against the proposals because there was the perception that their businesses would be impacted by loss of trade. Residents in the areas impacted were concerned that displaced parking by people looking to park for free in surrounding roads would impact their ability to park near their homes. Petitions against the proposals were mentioned.

Towards the end of the public meeting, Shaer Halewood who is Wirral Council’s Director of Resources and section 151 officer referred to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s capitalisation directive. Further details on the £9.0 million for 2020-21 that this applies to and the conditions attached to it are outlined in this letter dated 3rd March 2021.

That letter also details that one of the conditions is an external assurance review of Wirral Council’s financial position and Wirral Council’s ability to be financially sustainable in the medium term.

Shaer Halewood gave her opinion that, “The capitalisation directive cannot be used to offset any reduction or any delay in implementing the new car parking charges” followed shortly after by, “For this year, Committee the main financial priority through the Council, through the committees are two fold. Firstly to ensure a balanced budget can be presented for this year without having to call upon the capitalisation directive as supported by the external assurance review and secondly to ensure that the Council can demonstrate long term financial sustainability. In the event car parking charges are not implemented this year, the Policy and Resources Committee would need to recommend what other areas of the Council will need to achieve the £1 million target” and “So as the proposal was unanimously agreed at Council for this year’s budget, it should actually be implemented as agreed.”

The Decision Review Committee did not reach a point where councillors voted on a recommendation about the car parking charges proposals. As the public meeting had gone on past 11 pm and the ventilation at the Floral Pavilion had stopped at 11 pm, the meeting was adjourned to another evening.

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