THE car parks working group on Westbury Town Council is investigating future options for Westbury’s car parks. But without firm facts and figures from Wiltshire Council, they say they are finding it difficult to compile a strategy.
The town council initially wrote to Wiltshire Council in February this year, requesting relevant information on usage, costs, income and maintenance for the town’s car parks. Since then, the town council has repeatedly requested the information and although correspondence has been acknowledged, the requested information has not been forthcoming.
At a recent town council meeting, the clerk to the town council was asked to obtain the required information through the Freedom of Information Act.
Cllrs Mike Cuthbert-Murray and Sue Ezra want the town council to investigate the possibility of the town council taking over the car parks and re-introducing two hours of free parking, suggesting that the town council would pay a nominal sum to buy the car parks from Wiltshire Council.
However, in his letter to the White Horse News (Issue 495, 1st September) ex-town councillor Mike Hawkins says this is unlikely as he recalls Wiltshire Council asking the town to pay £80,000 per year to maintain free parking for 2 hours for a limited number of spaces
Cllr Russell Hawker stated that he understands that Wiltshire Council pays huge maintenance costs for the car parks at the moment, and so suggested that Wiltshire Council should in fact pay Westbury Town Council to take over the car parks.
There is also a new shoppers’ car parking ‘cashback scheme’ which is being considered by Wiltshire Council, which they will be bringing to their select committee at the beginning of November.
At the meeting of the town council on Monday 5th September cllr David Tout agreed with a comment from Bruce Evans, a member of the public, who called for a public consultation on whether Westbury Town Council should take on the running of the car parks. Cllr Tout added that he felt a parish poll would also be appropriate.
Following the town council meeting, Wiltshire and town cllr David Jenkins said, “I was pleased that the council agreed for the car park’s working group to consider opening negotiations with Wiltshire Council to look at the possibilities of running and taking control of the car parks .This should have been an option available in Wiltshire Council’s car park consultation.”
“At the moment, Wiltshire Council is preparing forecasts for income for all car parks and the administration has agreed to look at all car parking charges in November.”
He adds, “If that is the case it will be too late for Christmas which is an important time for shoppers and the traders .The towns and parishes should take over their car parks and then set the fees as they see appropriate, however there is no such thing as “free” car parking. The motorist has been squeezed and in these difficult times it has resulted in car parks being almost empty and consequently less business being done in the town as shoppers take their custom else where.”
Car parking task group refused at Wiltshire Council
Meanwhile, a Wiltshire Council committee has refused to form a group to investigate their car parking strategy in more depth, claiming there is not enough evident to scrutinise.
Leader of the opposition, cllr Jon Hubbard, put forward a proposal to Wiltshire Council to form a task group, whose purpose would be to provide scrutiny of the authority’s car parking strategy.
Scrutiny meetings for transport issues is normally undertaken by Wiltshire Council’s environment select committee, who are scheduled to discuss car parking on the 1st of November. However, cllr Hubbard notes that there is already a “packed out agenda,” and is concerned that the car parking issue will not be addressed adequately.
“Wiltshire Council’s environment select committee meet maybe four or five times a year and as you can imagine, the agendas are normally full.
“The committee will meet on November 1st to discuss highways, housing, air poverty and car parking. All this needs to be discussed in a two-hour meeting. The results of that meeting will go before full council on the 7th of November.
“I believe that the car parking issue needs to be looked at in some depth by a task group, where any interested councillor could have sat on the task group. However, this motion was refused.
“Perhaps Wiltshire Council do not want anyone digging deep into the shambolic disaster that is car parking.”
Chairman of the environment select committee, Nigel Carter, has defended the decision, stating that the car parking issue is still an “incomplete study.”
He said, “The difficulty in giving a task group this responsibility is determining whether there is enough evidence to give a proper conclusion about car parking. The decision was made to wait for a complete study and then put it up for scrutiny.
“To say the idea of a task group has been ‘thrown out’ is provocative. It was a majority decision. The economical context of car parking is a very complex issue. We want to better understand the financial considerations which go into the making of decisions.
“We also have to look into the impact that reducing charges will have on rural bus services. The purpose of raising car parking charges was to help subsidise and maintain a rural bus scheme.”
The environment select committee will discuss car parking strategy on 1st November, ahead of a full review of the service by Wiltshire Council’s cabinet on 7th November.
