Official documents, just released, show that the Liberal-led coalition plan to more than DOUBLE the cost of parking in our borough.
This image, copied from the agenda for the Council’s Executive Meeting later this month show that the price of one hour of parking will increase by 62.5%, massively ahead of inflation. Market traders will also be charged an additional 62.5% to operate their business, while anyone who shops or works for more than 2 hours will be charged more than DOUBLE!!!!!
For years officers at WBC asked the Conservative councillors to increase parking charges across the borough.
We repeatedly resisted this for two reasons.
1) We always wanted to promote businesses and didn’t want to prevent residents from enjoying our towns, supporting local businesses or from living their daily lives.
2) The justification was not strong enough as the cost of running our car parks had not dramatically changed.
Evening Charging
Parking charge timings are also set to change, with the money hungry coalition proposing implementing charges until 10pm, a change from the current 6pm stop time.
Anyone used to going out for dinner at the weekend, parking and not needing a ticket after 6pm, is therefore likely to be caught out and fined through until 10pm.
Charging on SUNDAYS also!
The coalition has also proposed to start charging on Sundays. Again, Conservative councillors repeatedly resisted this.
Cost of Living
In a time when the cost of living is significantly increasing, when many businesses are still struggling to regain their footfall and customers post-pandemic, the LAST THING our council should be doing right now is increasing the price of parking.
It will discourage people from shopping local, further impact already struggling businesses, increase the cost of living in our community and penalise those who work in our towns or use our car parks as part of their commute.
Wokingham Borough Conservatives will fight against this disgraceful and unjustified daylight robbery of our community. Join our campaign and speak out against these proposals.
