Labour Plans to hike parking charges due to lower fuel costs
Labour council chiefs have been branded ‘car-hating amateurs’ by furious motorists after plotting a 40 per cent parking fee rise because the price of fuel has fallen.
Sheffield’s Labour-run council, which already makes millions of pounds every year from parking, has put forward these plans to discourage people from driving after this year’s overall falls in fuel prices.
Furious drivers are worried that Sefton’s Labour-run council might follow their socialist brothers from Sheffield in trying to exploit this issue to make more money, while shopkeepers warn that parking charges hiked by Labour in Southport this year are already ‘killing’ business.
The proposals came despite the fact that fuel costs have actually risen over the past six months, although they remain lower than they have been in some recent years.
Sheffield City Council coined £4.7 million from its parking meters in 2013/14 – up from £3.9 million the previous year – producing a £3 million overall profit on parking , even more than Sefton Council gets. . The plans were revealed in the report, which appeared on the council’s website – but were quickly ‘pulled’ by council chiefs after they provoked uproar and the council has postponed a decision on the proposals, which was due to take place on Thursday.
Florist Michael Bingley said: “The parking charges have killed it down here.” while an RAC Foundation spokesman said: “The risk in putting up on-street parking charges is that the customers on whom small businesses depend will simply drive somewhere else.”
Sheffield’s local Lib Dem opposition leader Condemned the plans. He said: “Raising parking charges because petrol prices have fallen is complete madness.
“I doubt the Labour council would be rushing to put them back down when petrol prices go back up.
“It adds insult to injury after the council have yet again played havoc with the buses. They should be improving bus services and cutting fares if they want more people to use public transport. This policy is a return to the loony-Left policies of the 1980s.”
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