New parking charges 'written by Ebenezer Scrooge'

Plans to shake up parking charges in the Bradford district are "so stingy they could have been written by Ebeneezer Scrooge", a councillor has claimed.

The controversial changes include scrapping the one hour of free parking currently available in Ilkley and imposing charges on bank holidays.

Ilkley Conservative councillor Andrew Loy told a Bradford Council meeting that the changes could see people forced to pay to park outside church on Christmas Day.

Charges will also rise in Bradford city centre – including fees to park on the street at numerous locations in the evening.

The meeting heard a petition against Ilkley's parking charges had been signed by more than 1,500 people, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

The proposals, if approved, would see the removal of the one-hour free street parking, as well as increasing charging until 8pm (from 6pm), inclusive of bank holidays.

A consultation on the changes recently ended, and will be decided in the near future.

The petition on the Ilkley charges was presented by local resident Richard Downing, who said the removal of the free parking would be "immensely damaging" for local businesses.

He told members: "It helps people shop locally and make visits to doctors and post offices. Having to pay to visit shops for a few items will make it inconvenient to shop locally – footfall will be down and people will be drawn to retail parks."

"Many residents will stop visiting the town's small businesses. Evening charges will deter people from visiting our theatres."

He urged the council to scrap the proposed changes.

Councillor Alex Ross Shaw, Executive for regeneration, planning and transport, thanked petitioners, saying: "We recognise the number of responses to the petition. We do recognise the strength of feeling.

"We're looking at trying to find ways of managing the budget. Standardising parking charges is one way of doing this. I understand some people believe Ilkley is treated differently from the rest of the district, and I do want to push back on that.

"Charges have been changed or implemented right across the district. People often feel when a change comes in 'why my area?' but often the changes are taking place in similar ways right across the district."

He said there had been a considerable number of responses to the consultation, and that the final decision would be made by the council's executive.

Loy said charges would "deal a blow" to the town's restaurants, bars and venues like Ilkley Playhouse, Ilkley Cinema and King's Hall.

He said: "The charges will unfairly impact certain groups of people. They include the elderly, less mobile, parents dropping off children at school and parishioners of churches who rely on on-street parking to attend their local church services.

"How is it fair that they might face a parking fine for parking outside their church on Christmas Day?

"It's like Ebenezer Scrooge is writing the council's parking policy."

Members voted for the petition to go to a future meeting of the council's executive.

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