The Greens broke their parking promise, so will they look at a park and ride scheme now?

8:40am Tuesday 24th April 2012 in park the charges

IT IS interesting to note Green cabinet member Councillor Ian Davey says, “It is not our intention to increase parking prices in the high tariff zone in the foreseeable future” (The Argus, April 19).

When asked at a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting on October 20 last year if the Green administration would be proposing “significant increases to car parking charges in the budget”, Coun Davey replied, “No, we are not proposing significant increases.” Could this be the same Coun Davey?

As the letters page in The Argus on the same day showed, the Greens went back on that promise in a big way, with massive increases in permit, pay and display and traders’ parking fees now in force.

Businesses and tourism are being hit hard.

Can we trust the Greens not to go back on their word again, and will they now agree to look at Labour’s call for a park and ride scheme for Brighton and Hove?

Pete Gillman, Hythe Road, Brighton

Comments(10)

wexler53 says...
1:38pm Tue 24 Apr 12

Since when can you trust politicians? That said, I'd rather be sacrificed on the tax payers altar managed by Labour or the Conservatives. At least they have a degree of reality and common sense about them. Goodness knows what damage the Greens are going to inflict on Brighton - the sooner they vanish into the wilderness, the better.

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billy goat-gruff says...
3:51pm Tue 24 Apr 12

Do the Argus moaners really think that the Tories or Labour would bring down car parking charges? Of course they wouldn't - lets face it, there are too many cars coming into the city and too few places for them to park - it's simple supply and demand.

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Fight Back says...
7:53pm Tue 24 Apr 12

billy goat-gruff wrote:
Do the Argus moaners really think that the Tories or Labour would bring down car parking charges? Of course they wouldn't - lets face it, there are too many cars coming into the city and too few places for them to park - it's simple supply and demand.
Then the simple thing for ANY political party to do is NOT to promise things they won't do or promise they won't do certain things. As the letter writer has stated, the Greens lied.

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Warren Morgan says...
1:12pm Wed 25 Apr 12

The Labour and Co-operative Group are calling on the Green-led council to:

1) Consider setting up a park and ride system for the city

2) Hold a review of parking charges in six months to see how hard businesses and tourism are being hit by rises in parking charges

3) Replace coin-only parking meters with ones that take debit cards and payment by phone, and which give change

4) Pledge to freeze parking charges for 18 months, and then only increase fees by inflation

5) Introduce special offers and parking charge holidays for off peak times, key events and shopping periods

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Arriseme says...
4:23pm Wed 25 Apr 12

Warren Morgan wrote:
The Labour and Co-operative Group are calling on the Green-led council to: 1) Consider setting up a park and ride system for the city 2) Hold a review of parking charges in six months to see how hard businesses and tourism are being hit by rises in parking charges 3) Replace coin-only parking meters with ones that take debit cards and payment by phone, and which give change 4) Pledge to freeze parking charges for 18 months, and then only increase fees by inflation 5) Introduce special offers and parking charge holidays for off peak times, key events and shopping periods
What a great politico’s response this is. No action, just ‘consider’ doing something, or ‘hold a review’ or ‘pledge’. Yes that’s the idea - let’s set up half a dozen ‘working parties’ – cross party, of course - to come up with a ‘policy framework’; lets have lots of these policies, pledges and considerations on lots of paper. That’s the trouble with local government; it has plenty of people who are just grand at creating policies but precious few who are talented enough to get anything sensible done, hence this mess.

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wexler53 says...
4:58pm Wed 25 Apr 12

I'm afraid Warren that your suggestions just don't cut the mustard. By the time you have done your reviews, the town will have suffered right through the season, educating a whole year's worth of visitors to Brighton that it is a complete rip off. Will they come here next year? No - simple logic really.
Meanwhile, businesses go bust or leave, the tax take gets smaller, council tax goes up etc etc. In short, while you sit on your nice expenses, the rest of us get stuffed. But hey, as long as there are taxpayers to milk, who cares, eh?
As a business, If I sit on my **** reviewing, rather than doing, I go bust. Somethings are just too obviously stupid decisions. What use a review? Instead of seizing the moment, you want to review and think about a park and ride...Wow - I am really impressed.
Politicians....

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Warren Morgan says...
5:41pm Wed 25 Apr 12

The reason why we want the Greens to review their parking charges is beacuse they are the largest party on the city council, they hold all ten Cabinet places and put these charges in place. We did not have a say in the decison.

If Labour was running the city council we would reverse these changes - though of course we would not have imposed them in the first place.

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Warren Morgan says...
5:41pm Wed 25 Apr 12

The reason why we want the Greens to review their parking charges is beacuse they are the largest party on the city council, they hold all ten Cabinet places and put these charges in place. We did not have a say in the decision.

If Labour was running the city council we would reverse these changes - though of course we would not have imposed them in the first place.

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wexler53 says...
9:51pm Wed 25 Apr 12

The effects of this parking nonsense risk being wide ranging. As business struggles to cope, or survive even, people are very likely to lose their jobs. This will put even more stress on increasing numbers if we assume these people have families. As they will have even less disposable income, more business will suffer and hard decisions will yield yet more job losses. As a business owner, I can't keep on re-mortgaging my house to keep the business afloat. It's worth less than before, lending rules are stricter, and why should I put my family at risk anyway?
Times are hard, I don't have the option of milking the taxpayer - I have what I earn, and with every tax increasing, prices rising across the board, and margins getting ever smaller, these parking hikes really take the biscuit.
Taken on their own, it would be bad. But with everything else, it's just plain crazy.

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davyboy says...
9:40pm Thu 26 Apr 12

of course the city needs a park and ride system, but no council has had the guts to make land available for it. i suggest at least 4 sites, on the major routes into the city, with frequent, non-stop bus services, direct to the centre. if you make a small (£1) charge for the car park, and cheap return fares on the buses, with kids going free, people will use it. you only have to look at Cambridge, Oxford or York for excellent examples of top quality P&R operations.

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