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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Tory parking scheme collapses in expensive shambles
April 17, 2011 2:06 PM
• [Apr 15]: TORY controlled Richmond Council has been forced to postpone its flagship parking scheme, which has come unravelled in a humiliating and expensive disaster. The scheme seeks to replace the current CO2-emissions related scheme with a flat rate scheme -favouring owners of gas guzzling vehicles - which increases the standard parking rate by between 5% and 15% depending on length of stay. At the same time a 30-minute free parking period and a 5 % discount for borough residents will be available to holders of Richmond Cards or those registered to pay by mobile phone.
Rather than start the scheme on 1 April as planned, the Council has been forced to defer its introduction by 10 weeks, belatedly having realised that with only 2,000 Richmond Cards in circulation the scheme would be a humiliating disaster. Instead it has rushed through emergency measures to issue 16,000 free Richmond Cards to CPZ permit holders (at £2.50 each), while offering 10,000 temporary cards, valid for 3 months, with the prospect of a free card at the end of the period. The Council press release omitted to mention that all this would cost the Council Tax payer an extra £70,000.
Cllr Stephen Knight, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition said: "Not only have the Tories abandoned an important climate change initiative introduced by the previous Lib Dem administration, giving a £410,000 handout from the Council Tax payer to owners of the most gas-guzzling vehicles, but their replacement scheme is so ill-thought-out that it has had to be rescued by a further £70,000 subsidy. At a time when services for children and the most vulnerable, such as Tangley Hall Day Centre, are being cut and libraries closed in order to pay for the Tories' planned Council Tax cuts, this Council seems to be willing to waste endless sums of money on their pet parking schemes.
The only people who will benefit from these changes are owners of gas-guzzling 4x4s and sports cars. The losers will be those who use public transport or drive small, efficient cars and those who rely on frontline services being cut by the Council. In the long term, we will all suffer as a result of this Council's policy to encourage greater CO2 emissions."
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