Council urged to hit the brakes on parking change

National World - LocalTV

From next month, drivers will be charged from 7am to 11pm, rather than the current length of 8am to 6pm.

Transcript

00:00Ending free parking in Liverpool City Centre after 6pm has been branded a hospitality tax,

00:06with the council now being urged to hit the brakes on the plans.

00:09Free parking in Liverpool City Centre after 6pm will come to an end

00:13after city councillors went against public opinion to back the move.

00:17It's stupid, it really is.

00:19You know, parking nowadays, you're trying to find a parking space and you ain't getting one.

00:26They've got a lot of that.

00:26Almost two and a half years after it was first announced,

00:30the council's endorsed plans to extend parking charges in the heart of town until 11pm.

00:35Now, members of the local authorities, highways and public spaces representations committee

00:40have agreed to adopt the proposals despite almost 90% of respondents to public consultations

00:46saying they opposed the changes.

00:4889% have said no, don't do it.

00:51You should listen to the people.

00:52They shouldn't listen to what they think because they think it's more money for them.

00:58They should think about people who will park in there.

01:02It should be 3pm after 6pm.

01:06Until 6pm the next morning.

01:07It'll also cost motorists more to leave their car in a city bay as 30 minutes parking in the city centre

01:14has gone up from £1.20 to £2, while an hour will now cost £4 up from £2.40.

01:21An informal consultation resulted in 89% of respondents saying they were against the changes

01:27to charging times, while in a formal engagement exercise in 2023,

01:32only 9% of those surveyed said they'd support the idea.

01:36Parking nowadays is getting ridiculous.

01:39The prices keep going up.

01:40How are you going to pay for, like, parking if they can't afford it?

01:46Everything else is going off and why put parking up?

01:50You're only parking for a couple of hours.

01:52The local authority says the proposed changes aim to reduce congestion and improve road safety.

01:56This has prompted the largest opposition group on the local authority

02:00to urge the Labour administration to change course.

02:03Councillor Carl Cashman, leader of the Liberal Democrat group,

02:07accused the ruling party of neglect of the city's night-time economy,

02:10according to Liverpool Council since the creation of a controlled parking zone in the 1990s.

02:15The city centres changed substantially,

02:18with the creation of new pedestrianised areas and off-street car parks.

02:22Councillor Dan Barrington, Cabinet Member for Transport and Connectivity,

02:25said changes to the city's parking offering would help deal with issues

02:29like the ongoing scourge of payment parking.

02:32If we're getting a lift into the city centre,

02:34obviously a lot of people are still getting involved.

02:37They're in the shopping, retail, work.

02:40So I think it's going to be awkward for the majority of people, I think.

02:45The proposed extended hours will require additional enforcement.

02:48A phased recruitment exercise is underway

02:50to recruit additional civil enforcement officers from 52 to 100.

02:56The changes will come into effect from the beginning of June.

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