A Black Country MP has raised concerns in Parliament about local authorities using parking charges to address budget shortfalls, questioning the legality of the practice. Dudley MP Sonia Kumar organized a debate on car parking in town centres after Dudley Council introduced charges last year. The council plans to extend them to on-street parking meters in April as part of a plan to address a £42 million deficit. While councils across the country, including Wolverhampton, Walsall, and Shropshire, are increasing parking charges to cope with rising costs, High Streets and Town Centres Minister Alex Norris suggested these revenue requirements should be reviewed. Mrs. Kumar argued that excessive parking charges not only threaten the viability of town centres but also burden students who rely on driving. She highlighted the irony of investing in town centre projects while simultaneously pricing people out through parking fees.
A government minister has questioned the legality of local authorities using parking charges to plug gaps in their finances after a Black Country MP raised the matter in parliament.Dudley MP Sonia Kumar organised a parliamentary debate on car parking in town centres following Dudley Council's decision to introduce car-park charges in October last year.
She said there was little point in spending money on town-centre investment projects while parking charges were pricing people out of the towns."Our high streets and leisure centres are the hearts of our communities, they provide the social and economic value for residents in Dudley and across the UK."In recent years we have seen too many once-thriving high streets fail."
"Successive governments have attempted to reverse this trend, grant funding for high street improvements, Business Improvement Districts, empty-shop strategies, business rates relief, and the list goes on," she said. Mrs Kumar suggested that one way of making town centres more attractive would be to offer motorists more time for the money, encouraging them to spend more in town.
She said traders with long leases were facing mounting pressures with both a decline in the number of people visiting town centres, as well as the shopkeepers themselves struggling to find somewhere to park. Jas Athwal, MP for Ilford South, said Redbridge Council introduced an hour's free parking, which led to increased revenue from business rates by revitalising the town.
John Slinger, MP for Rugby, said asked if the Government could do anything to counter the threat of out-of-town shopping centres which offered free parking.
PARKING CHARGES COUNCIL FINANCES TOWN CENTRES TRANSPORT POLICY HIGH STREETS
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