Revealed: Breckland Council spent nearly £100,000 on ill-fated car park charging plans for towns including Thetford and Watton

It has been revealed a Norfolk council spent nearly £100,000 on its ill-fated plans to introduce car parking charges.

New data shows Breckland Council spent roughly £40,000 more on the scheme than was first reported.

The council spent the huge sum on surveys, consultation and legal fees before hitting the brakes on the plans last month in light of local government reorganisation.

The proposals had been controversial among residents in towns including Thetford, Dereham and Watton, but the council said fees were necessary to pay for maintenance of the car parks.

However, Norfolk’s eight councils all face the prospect of being abolished, with new councils created to replace them, as part of Labour’s devolution and reorganisation plans.

Leaders at Breckland Council said the implementation of car parking charges would now be for a ‘future administration’ to decide and paused the project last month.

While council documents stated some £31,000 had been spent on a feasibility study and nearly £26,000 on consultation for the scheme, the true cost of the project has now been revealed to be even steeper.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Breckland Council shows it spent just shy of £100,000 on its plans to introduce car parking fees.

These costs include £35,700 on surveys, £29,650 on a feasibility study, £19,460.34 on consultation, £6,000 on legal work and £7,757.51 on communication costs.

This brings the project total to £98,567.85.

The plans to introduce car parking charges were controversial from the beginning and sparked fears among business owners this would be the nail in the coffin for high streets in the district.

The scheme has been paused but not scrapped entirely. This means research carried out may still be used by future leaders to determine whether charges should be implemented.

The authority has faced criticism in recent months over its financial management after several controversial investments came to light – and people living in the district will pay an extra four per cent in council tax this year as it seeks to balance the books.

Paul Hewett, cabinet member for projects, said: “The total spend was allocated to essential workstreams that ensured we gathered robust evidence, conducted meaningful public consultation and explored viable long-term options for our car parks.

“Decision-making on projects of this scale must be based on the latest evidence to ensure informed and effective outcomes, requiring investment in up-to-date usage surveys. These costs were budgeted for transparently.

“With the overarching aim of this project being that car parks would cover their own costs through charging, the costs would be recovered under any potential car parking regime.

“But now that the decision has been made to pause the introduction of parking charges, this expenditure has not been wasted. The insights gained from this work will continue to support decision-making – for Breckland Council, any future council that succeeds Breckland under new local government arrangements and for any town councils that choose to take on car park management in the future.”