Your local Liberal Democrat Councillors became aware that the cost of parking in Maple Road by the shops had increased twice in one year from 40p per hour to 60p per hour then to 90p per hour.  Obviously this was not helping the local shops and businesses during difficult times.  Councillors questioned the rises and discovered that an officer had made a mistake many years ago with the cost not rising when others in the area did.  Officers this year were correcting that error, without informing Councillors. 

We did not see this as acceptable.  Shops need our support, not increased charges for their customers, so we insisted officers return the price to 60p per hour.  This is less than the town centre pay and display and more in line with those in other smaller shopping parades.  For 20p a customer can park and shop for 20 minutes.  We’d like to thank the businesses for letting us know about this problem so we could get it remedied.

says Cllr Yogan Yoganathan