Shropshire Star

Take part in consultation about the council car park charges

Having just read the article about the raising of car park charges consultation I would urge all readers of the Shropshire Star, county residents, businesses and local town and parish councils to take part in this consultation especially in light of the Road Traffic Regulations Act (1984) section 55 which I have cut and pasted below.

Published

In respect of the question about s.55 of the 1984 Act and whether a separate parking account needs to be maintained, s.55 refers to “local authorities” which would not appear to include parish councils in this context. Caselaw (R (Attfield) v London Borough of Barnet [2013] EWHC 2089) has restricted the use of money obtained from on-street car parking charges to what the local highway authority needs to operate a parking scheme.

It was held that the 1984 Act was not a fiscal measure and did not authorise the local authority to use its powers to charge local residents for parking in order to raise surplus revenue for other transport purposes funded by the general fund. Off-street parking was not considered.

However, taking a broad approach I think there is a case for saying that the 1984 Act cannot be used to raise money for other purposes.

We need to look very carefully at the consultation paper and see when and where Shropshire Council will be spending the extra revenue raised will be spent.

Back in 2012 I made a Freedom of Information request about the amounts of revenue raised in Ludlow after deduction of running costs and the portion needed to fund parking wardens in Ludlow there was a surplus of over £450,000. So far there has been no improvements to the car parks and on-street parking so where has the money been spent.

I have just made another FOI request to Shropshire Council for the information for the last financial year and also asked what they have done with the underspend.

I suspect this will go the same way as the money received from central government which was intended for town and parish councils. Once again this shows Shropshire Council is not fit for purpose irrespective of which political party is in control.

Jim Smithers, Ludlow

Send us your letters for publication: Email us at starmail@shropshirestar.co.uk or write to: Readers’ Letters, Shropshire Star, Ketley, Telford, TF1 5HU. Letters MUST include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. Letters will only be published anonymously in exceptional circumstances. The editor reserves the right to condense or amend letters.