South West Wiltshire Liberal Democrats

Lib Dems condemn short-sighted approach to Wiltshire car parking

Liberal Democrats in Wiltshire have condemned plans forced through by the ruling Conservative group at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting in Trowbridge that removes free parking from almost every council owned car park in the county.

The plans to bring in a one-size-fits-all set of charging bands across the county mean that some residents will see the existing free parking abolished, while others will see their charges double.

The meeting was attended by scores of residents from across the county who pleaded for the council to review its proposals, but the Conservative Cabinet voted them through anyhow.

Speaking at the meeting Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Jon Hubbard commented, "This is a bodged policy that is being rushed through without proper consultation or scrutiny. Back bench members of the council have had no opportunity to examine or properly comment on this proposal; it is being forced through without following the usual consultative procedures within the authority.

"We are seeing today policy being made on the hoof. The Council Leader talks about this being democracy in action, but it is not. It is too little too late. Instead this should have been properly discussed in the appropriate Select Committee, open to the public, with all councillors able to contribute.

"The council talks about adopting a strategic approach to this, but I say that this policy is a strategic plan to shut down Wiltshire's market towns. This short sighted approach, designed only to maximise revenue input to pay off the council's excessive spending will result in more shops closing, more jobs being lost and more town centres becoming ghost towns."

Following the meeting the Liberal Democrat group have formally called for the decision to be 'called in'. This means that the implementation of the proposals should be delayed to allow the council's Environment Select Committee to scrutinise the plans.

Here's the full call-in request, signed up to by the three Lib Dem and one Devizes Guardian members of the Environment committee:

"This is a formal request to call in today's decision made at cabinet relating to Wiltshire Local Transport Plan 2011-2026 - Car Parking Strategy by Councillors Colmer, Brown, Oldrieve and Carter, all full members of the Environment Select Committee.

This in accord with the constitution and the decision in our view does not meet some of the principles outlined in Article 14, appendix 2 of the said constitution, namely;

to ensure open, fair and honest administration

to state the reasons for the action

to consult interested parties where appropriate and practicable

to promote the economic, social and environmental well-being of the County

to determine issues at the lowest level commensurate with their importance

Rationale as to the call in request as this decision was a key policy framework change which constitutionally the cabinet member is required to do is:

At the Environment Select Committee on 2nd. November there was a presentation made by officers, supported by the cabinet member Cllr. Dick Tonge. This presentation was purely associated with the result of the consultation process. Whilst the committee recorded their thanks to the cabinet member and officers with regard to their work so far relating to the results of the consultation process, the comprehensive detail as outlined in the cabinet papers were not presented to the Environment Select Committee and therefore not subjected to the scrutiny process.

Today what transpired at Cabinet was a pseudo scrutiny process , naturally there was a lot of public interest, quite rightly so. The opportunity to absorb the representations made by the public and Councillors with regard to the detailed recommendations, had the process been through the recognised scrutiny committee, would have enabled the committee to document recommendations to amend the proposals for the cabinet member to consider.

During the course of today's cabinet meeting, concessions were made to Amesbury no doubt as a result of evidence provided by interested parties, however representations made by other towns and parishes who provided evidence relative to their particular issues were not considered, this is not deemed to be fair and even handed. Additionally, the proposals have not been shared with 'backbenchers' in a timely manner for them to consider the implications with the towns/parishes they represent.

Robust discussion took place as to the bandings of each major community in the county. However within the strategy there is not documented evidence as to the economic justification for the bandings.

Reference was made to the minority report, submitted by some members as a result of the dissatisfaction of the process at the Environment Select Committee, which in their view the strategy being contrary to the localism agenda, which was epitomised by the public representations today. The response to the minority report was only handed to the authors of the report, literally seconds before the cabinet meeting and was obtained by chance! Additionally the statement made in response Para 3 is totally inaccurate.

To summarise, the process that has been adopted to enable the cabinet to come to a decision, albeit very lengthy is flawed and in the interests of fairness to all the residents. employers, businesses within the county requires a scrutiny process is both robust and transparent."