Mendip Tories say Yes to Frome Parking Hike

By MendipLibDems | Tuesday, November 08, 2011, 17:27

'During their Cabinet meeting this Monday in Shepton Mallet, the Conservative administration at Mendip District Council gave the nod for yet another rise in the price of parking across the area.

In a bid to make more money from motorists, Mendip will raise prices by up to 12% in some places, with others getting 7% - nearly twice the rate of inflation.

Cllr Claire Hudson, leader of the Lib Dem opposition at Mendip said 'We've been campaigning against this kind of thing for years now as we don't believe putting up parking charges is the answer to Mendip's financial problems. Members of the Cabinet kept saying 'it's in the best interest of the district' as if they had had this message drummed in to them. Well the Lib Dems don't think its in the best interest of the residents of the district who will have to pay more when they want to park in one of our towns.'

In disagreement with the move also was Cllr Helen Sprawson-White, Shadow portfolio holder for Regulatory Services who believes these charges will harm small businesses already struggling to survive. 'It doesn't take a genius to work out that this is the last thing local businesses need right now. Mendip District Council are ignoring their own priorities when they put short term gain ahead of peoples livelihoods. I welcome the last minute decision to delay the implementation until after Christmas - something I've discussed online and on the radio.'

Mendip Liberal Democrats presented a petition of nearly three-hundred names at the meeting along with data suggesting that over 90% of people online think charges are too high already.

Cllr Hudson added 'Sadly the views of these residents counted for nothing.'

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Comments

The need to raise charges or revenue from somewhere is the corollary of decisions made nationally to cut local government spending by 28% by the coalition of...let me think...Conservatives and Liberals.

Carry on the pretend-fight chaps while the economy flatlines.

By Roger_Burnett at 18:56 on 14/11/11
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Yes the Cabinet has to make the final decision, that is what the cabinet is there for, however in all my time on Mendip, cebinet has never failed to endorse the conclusions of a working party set up to do a job of work, cabinet may amend minor items at times, but I've never seen them make wholesale changes.

With the exception of Harvey Siggs, who is full time at MDC and Somerset, all of the cabinet work as well, mostly we run businesses and employ people, but we MAKE the time to attend when required, in any event, if you can't attend a meeting you can always send a substitute, and I can't believe that all 10 Lib Dems in Frome were busy on the same day!

Finally as Councillor Unwin so eloquently put it on the radio the other morning, the Lib Dems do not have an alternative proposal to raise the £117k in VAT and Rates that has to be found, apart from charging for on-street parking, and just how is that not a car park charge increase?

By johnp2010 at 16:22 on 11/11/11
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Well, I have to disagree with John here, and cannot let that be the last word. Decisions are not made at working groups, they are made at Cabinet. John Parham and his Conservative colleagues on Mendip's Cabinet decided to put up the parking charges, no-one else did. I think all this talk about Lib Dems is only to deflect attention away from that.

Cllr Hooton did not attend the recent Car Park Working Group meeting mentioned as it occurred on the same afternoon as a briefing by Mendip DC officers on the potentially very important Saxonvale development in Frome. Cllr Unwin was called out on an emergency for his work (at Unwins funeral directors in Wells) and sent his apologies in retrospect. It should be noted that all Lib Dem councillors work and are not always able to attend meetings scheduled during the daytime, which has been made clear to the Conservative administration. When Lib Dem councillors saw the item in the Cabinet papers, we responded and highlighted the issue. I am pleased to see enough pressure was brought to bear from everyone to persuade Cabinet to delay introducing increases until February.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing more about and promoting the positive ways local businesses, residents and our District and Town Councils can work together to help our town centres become even better places to shop, work, meet, eat, drink, play, .... as we have such great places to promote.

By aomboyden at 11:30 on 11/11/11
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As you have already seen selected quotes from my blog, you might like to read the rest of it, you can find it on Shepton in Blue http://tinyurl.com/cz8f83x
you will be able to clearly see how Frome and Wells were not represented by your elected Liberal Democrat members, and we had to rely on representations from the business community, which we then responded to.

By johnp2010 at 14:29 on 10/11/11
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I'd be interested to know who you think the 'powers that be' are! There are already several loyalty schemes at work in Frome - will write them up properly soon...... watch this space.

By LoveFrome at 17:05 on 09/11/11
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