Parking Plans Put Borough Progress at Risk
Cheshire West Conservatives are pledging to fight plans to introduce parking charges across the whole borough and are outraged by Labour claims to justify their plans
Margaret Parker, deputy leader of the Conservatives and a Chester villages councillor said, "Our focus from 2009-15 was to rescue an economy that was stalled and spiralling out of control after years of neglect and under investment by Labour in their 13 years in Government. As the former leader of Chester Council I remember the dark days in the City after Labour closed the theatre.
"Claims by Cllr Karen Shore of 7 years of neglect are truly outrageous and an aggressive attempt to justify their actions" said Cllr Stuart Parker. "Our priority was to kick start local growth in Chester and other borough towns by using Council funds and attracting huge inward investment into transformational schemes that delivered Storyhouse and opened up the city heritage through the walls and towers and restoring Grosvenor park, the clock and suspension bridge; investment at Chester station, the Carriage Shed and City Place.
During their 7 years in office, the Conservatives carpark charges were held, and progressively removed through free after three to support the market and new Chester BID. We made our plans to encourage new car parks to be delivered by other projects like Waitrose, & Delamere Street so we could build alternatives ways to travel around by extending the Green way, and the park and ride services.We might not have made parking our priority but we understood that it really matters for our residents, businesses and visitors
And now 2 years into their term we see the return of the old Labour ways. Cllr Shores claims of "neglect " are outrageous and demonstrate she has not listened to local concerns including over 7000 people in nearby Northwich who know what parking charges will do to their fragile recovery.
There are some sensible parts of the strategy but these won't appear til much later in the 15 year strategy. Parking charges will be introduced with no consideration of the impact on the local economies and the psychological effect will be devasting for some of our smaller economies like Frodsham, Helsby and rural communities.
CWAC Conservatives want to see a key element of free parking retained for every community and remind Labour colleagues of their campaigning back in 2015 for free parking in Ellesmere Port and Weavervale. A year may be a long time in politics but this is yet another demonstration of a complete reversal of position by the ruling Labour administration.
Councillor Lynn Riley
Cheshire West & Chester Council - Frodsham Ward
Leader of the Conservative Group / CWAC Opposition