West Suffolk Council approves parking charges in Bury St Edmunds and maximum Council Tax hikes during fiery debate

Parking charges and Council Tax were among the hikes approved by an authority.

Last night, West Suffolk councillors met to discuss budget proposals for the upcoming financial year, including car parking charge increases across Bury St Edmunds of at least 20p.

Cllr Diane Hind, the authority's lead for resources, said: "This budget and this council make the West Suffolk pound stretch to achieve the best outcomes and value for money."

The debate began, however, with councillors discussing a Conservative amendment, brought up by Cllr Sarah Broughton, which primarily sought to reverse the car parking charges.

The Conservative amendment

The amendment would have seen several changes to the administration's budget proposals, including offering the first hour of several car parks across Newmarket and Haverhill for free.

It would keep prices for the long-stay Ram Meadow car park, in Cotton Lane, Bury, frozen at the current rate, reverting the administration's proposals to increase them to £3, up from £2.50 for three hours, and £3.50 for an all-day stay.

Changes to weekly and annual tickets in Ram Meadow, which would increase by £12 and £78 respectively, would be reverted.

Similarly, Conservative councillors wanted to continue absorbing the 20p charge for the RinGo mobile app, which the administration sought to reinstate.

The blanket 20p increase across all short-stay car parking tariffs in Bury town centre would be kept.

On pavement licenses, the amendment asked to freeze rates at £100 — this, however, was based on incorrect information within the budget report as charges were changed last summer.

All of the changes, as proposed, would have come at a total cost of £835,250 to be taken from reserves.

A fiery debate

Kicking off the debate on the amendment, Cllr Broughton said although budget proposals were good and balanced, the increased charges were 'disappointing and anti-growth'

She said: "The attack on parking charges in this budget needs addressing — the high street and shopkeepers are suffering, the face of the high street is changing as shopping habits move to buying online.

"These huge [pavement license] increases could be the tipping point for some small businesses and we should be supporting businesses to grow and not increase the burden on them."

Cllr Beccy Hopfensperger said: "We live in challenging times and the pressure is just being piled on our residents and businesses which may well push them to the edge."

Their speeches were not enough to convince councillors on the other side who criticised bringing in an amendment at late notice — this, however, is common during councils' budget discussions.

Councillors within the administration were concerned about the proposed use of reserves.

Cllr Cliff Waterman, the authority's leader, said: “This puts us in a position where we’re using up our reserves, we do know looking forward that we could well face some large deficits and that’s why we keep reserves."

Although some Independent councillors decided to support the amendment, it was still defeated with 26 votes for and 29 against.

Discussions resumed on the administration's proposals, giving councillors another chance to speak.

For the most part, Conservative members said although they were in support of the majority of the proposals, they could not agree to the proposed parking charges.

Cllr Waterman said some Conservative members did not share the passion to work with residents and said 'they're sore, they're bitter, they're twisted' after losing the vote — he was made to withdraw the statement.

Speaking on the budget, Cllr Hind added: "These budget proposals support the most vulnerable, are financially sound and importantly invest in the prosperity of our communities, businesses and West Suffolk as a whole."

The council also sought to increase Council Tax by the maximum amount of 2.99 per cent, equivalent to £5.85 extra for a Band D property.

Despite the increase, the authority's tax relief scheme was given the go-ahead in December for another year.

The budget was approved with 32 votes for and 21 against.

Reacting to the decision, Mark Cordell, chief executive of the Bury Business Improvement District (BID), said he was disappointed and warned it could be the tipping point causing the town centre's success to diminish.

He said: "Our members will just have to deal with yet another blow to their businesses and fingers crossed the public will continue to visit our lovely town centre despite all the increasing costs to them in doing so.”