A stirring victory for people power or an ignominious political climbdown? Either way, much debated parking charges are not coming to a clutch of Cotswold towns – at the moment. But what does this episode tell us about political engagement and how are increasingly cash-strapped local councils going to find the money to keep services going? ALAN GEERE investigates
“After carefully considering the views of the public, parish and town
councils, and businesses, Stroud District Council is stopping proposals to
charge for car parking in Dursley, Nailsworth, Wotton-under-Edge and Stratford
Park in Stroud.
“We have listened to concerns and it is has become clear during the past
months that high street traders face a rapidly changing commercial challenge
from a wide range of online services. I am keen to continue dialogue with
traders and councils about these ongoing challenges for town centres.”
That carefully worded
statement from Stroud District Council (SDC) leader Doina Cornell brought to an
end months of ‘consultation’ – in the form of angry voices from every quarter –
which signalled an unprecedented level of political engagement from people
whose previous dealings with the council stretched from putting the right stuff
in the recycling bin to paying their council tax by direct debit.
The three towns on
the western edge of the Cotswolds rose up in righteous indignation and, for the
time being at least, appear to have staved off the threat of parking machines,
attendants and fixed penalty notices.
Nailsworth,
especially, wore its heart on its sleeve plastering the town with banners
proclaiming ‘Don’t take the P out of Nailsworth’ (above) and organising a public
meeting that was attended by 300 people.
“This is great news
for Nailsworth and the other towns in the review,” said Nailsworth mayor
Jonathan Duckworth, who led the protests from the front. “We'd like to thank
all those that have taken part in the fight for our town's future; there have
been very many people involved and it is the united front that has been most
powerful in this.
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| On Patrol: The parking attendant at Morrisons in Nailsworth |
“We will work with
SDC in the coming months but this will be more productive in an atmosphere of
openness and partnership. We hope that their approach will now be different.”
Under consideration
were eight parking areas in Nailsworth, four in Dursley and three in
Wotton-under-Edge. The proposed charges ranged from 50p for an hour up to £2.50
all day and would have been introduced in January 2019.
Detailed proposals
were first put forward by council officers in 2011 but the idea of parking
charges has been around since the 1970s.
SDC commissioned a
36-page report from consultants Arup – ‘We shape a better world’ is their claim
– which concluded that charging actually benefits the local economy.
“Fair charging
encourages commuters to park in long stay locations, leaving the prime parking
spaces for visitors and shoppers,” says the report, also concluding “there is
no evidence to suggest that introducing car park charges will lead to a
decrease in footfall”.
Not so, says Mayor
Duckworth, who says the report fails to provide evidence of congestion in
Nailsworth and does not acknowledge the Nailsworth has very few public
facilities and gets almost no funding from SDC.
“Nailsworth has no
secondary school, no museum, no canal, no Sub Rooms, no railway station, no
sports centre, no swimming pool, no shopping centre for SDC to invest in.
Nailsworth is different,” Duckworth countered.
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| A resounding ‘No’ from a packed public meeting at Nailsworth Town Hall |
But back comes
council leader Cornell: “Yes, well that is the Nailsworth view which is quite
interesting. I think what is also interesting having talked to people in
Nailsworth, about some of the things we do is that people aren’t always aware
of the services the district council provides.
“Because a lot of our
services might be for quite vulnerable individuals not everyone gets them. Nailsworth
is having its sheltered housing redeveloped or we are working on anti-social
behaviour so not everyone necessarily knows that’s going on.”
Two weeks before the
end of the public consultation period last month 300 people packed into a
public meeting at Nailsworth Town Hall to make its voice heard with a
resounding ‘No’ to charges.
"We're lucky if
we usually get 50 or 60 to any kind of meeting," said Duckworth. "But
it was clearly an emotive subject which helps account for the fantastic
response."
Nailsworth had put
aside a fighting fund of £20,000 to go down a legal challenge route if the
charges had made it through the council chamber. While that's not needed right
now there's every indication that the issue could find its way back on to
agenda.
"They will have
to come back with some sound reasons," says Duckworth. "At the moment
it just looks like a way of raising money which is not a legitimate reason for
doing it."
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| Worried traders Lee & Janet Buffrey in their Dursley sweetshop |
But the mood is
clear. "Introducing car parking charges will kill this street," says
Lee Buffrey from behind his counter at Hewitts newsagents and sweet shop.
"We've already had customers say they would not come in to town if they
had to pay 50p to park."
His wife Janet
agrees. "It would have made a big difference, but I don't think the
politicians expected such a backlash from the towns."
But there is a
problem with parking. People queuing to get in to the car parks block the town
centre roads quickly causing gridlock, if that doesn’t seem a perverse
expression for a charming Cotswold town of 6,700 people.
Supermarket
Sainsbury's has the biggest car park in the town and campaigners point out that
this would still remain free so are concerned that charging would not help ease
congestion.
Interestingly, there
is no mention in the Arup report of either this Sainsbury's car park or a
similarly popular parking area at Morrisons in Nailsworth. Both supermarket
giants confirmed to the WDP that they would continue to operate a free car park
'for customers' but were less clear on enforcement measures.
Morrisons does have
an attendant who monitors comings and goings, but there is no empirical
measurement, like a ticket machine or Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)
that would make it a transparent exercise for all involved.
Clearly the presence
of these car parks knocks a bit of a hole in the ‘tackling congestion’ argument
and Cllr Cornell admits: "I don’t know where we are with the supermarkets.
"There was a
conversation which officers did have with all the supermarkets and as far as I
understood they would continue to operate their free car parking, but there may
have been some schemes as regards people going into shop there."
So, for the time
being, those strident banners can be taken down. But who knows when they might
need to be dusted off…
Council leader says issue has not gone away
For the council at
the centre of ‘Parking Wars’ it’s more a case of a break in hostilities rather
than a wholesale surrender.
“I think we’ve got to
look at it again. Personally, I’ve always felt it was important to look at how
car parking charges can be used as a way to manage congestion,” council leader
Doina Cornell (right) told the WDP in an exclusive interview at her Stroud District
Council office.
Cornell leads a
cooperative – some may say, unholy – alliance of Labour, Green and Liberal
Democrat councillors who together outnumber the Conservatives by just seven
seats. Political considerations are, by necessity, never far away.
“I represent Dursley
which is one of the towns affected and I think there is an issue with car use.
Traffic nationally and in rural areas is going up and up and our town centres
are finite so it is inevitably more and more of an issue.
“People drive a lot
and public transport isn’t good enough so the alternatives aren’t ideal for
people either. There isn’t enough public transport and in rural areas buses are
really expensive, so even if you want to use the bus and are happy to use a bus
it’s not necessarily practical so we can’t just completely do nothing.
“I think we have to
look at it again but I think we’re going to have to talk to town
councils. Town councils are saying charges are very difficult for local
businesses. That’s fine, but we’ve got to ask ‘okay, so what do we do, how do
we manage this going forward?’”
Cornell also feels
the parking debate highlights a bigger issue in the towns. “I think what it’s
brought out for us is the question of viability of the high street. Since we
made the initial decision to look into this as a possibility last year there’s
been a lot of bad news stories and so that’s something that’s come across quite
strongly about retail, the state of the high street particularly in small
towns.”
And how has she
reacted to the vociferous opposition? “Proportionally of course if you look at
the population of the Stroud District the people who have engaged with this is
actually quite tiny. It’s a minority but still more than on other issues.
“It’s interesting
that obviously car parking is one thing that people have engaged with, maybe
because it’s so visible. I mean there are other things we’ve done which
no one seems to have an issue with.
“I’ve never had
anyone protesting about planning application charges going up so it’s
interesting what people pick up on politically to engage with.
“I suppose to take
some positives out of the whole experience. I’ve had lots of conversations with
people and had emails from people which wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Perhaps
it was rather unusual way to engage with lots of people but it has given an
insight into what people are thinking.”
- The article originally appeared as a 'Long Read' in the Western Daily Press of August 28 2018
