Challenging Bradford Council's disastrous parking charge’s in Idle Village

At the Council meeting on October 15th Cllr Alun Griffiths again questioned Bradford Council on their decision to implement car parking charges in Idle Village. Businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to operate following a dramatic decrease in footfall and takings.

A once busy car park now lies mostly empty thanks to a Labour-run Council trying to claw back money in any way they can having taken the Authority to the edge of bankruptcy, with little thought for the people it affects and ignoring a huge response to consultations.

Holding the Council to Account

The Lib Dem team in Idle and Thackley Ward are all users of the village. Our questions to Council leaders attempted to find out the expected income for the car park, what the initial outlay would be from the Council and what they thought running costs would be. 

It turns out they expect to make £20.000 per annum which seems to be a very optimistic figure for a car park that is now largely empty and boycotted.

Following up on the answer from the Labour Executive, Alun strongly objected to the Parking Charges again on behalf of many small business owners, residents and customers in Idle. He spelt out the detrimental effect on not only businesses but residents, who now have cars using street parking outside their homes.

Businesses and Residents' Concerns were casually dismissed!

Responding in the meeting Labour’s Cllr Ross-Shaw dismissed concerns from Residents, Businesses and the Lib Dem team as ‘teething problems’ and he believes things will be ok in a few months. 

What was dismissed as just ‘teething problems’ is increasingly a fight for survival for Idle's small businesses and the disruption to residents daily should not be lightly ignored!

We will continue to support local businesses and residents in the village and put pressure on the Council to scrap these unfair parking charges. The Lib Dem team suggested at the very least a ‘free first hour’ would be reasonable – this was also dismissed 

Lib Dems continue fighting for our village 

We are also working with the Enforcement and Highways team to look at ways to mitigate this awful decision. We are insisting that any money raised through the car parking charges be reinvested in improving the car park in Idle and the wider village if the Labour Leadership insist on following through with these charges. 

Tell us your experience

Have you been impacted by these charges for car parking? If yes, please get in touch by emailing info@bradfordlibdems.org.uk we are collecting evidence from businesses, customers and residents to help us fight for a better deal for Idle Village with the Council. 

Thank you to everyone who has fought against these changes and worked to improve Idle over the years. Please continue to use the village and support the businesses as often as you can in the future.

Below is the written question from the Idle Lib Dem team and the answer from the Labour Executive 

Councillor Alun Griffiths 

Question.

 For the car park at The Green, Idle, can the portfolio holder tell me:

1. The set-up costs (including but not limited to, equipment, legal orders, consultation costs).
2. The expected running costs (including but not limited to, maintenance, servicing cash machines, admin fees to third parties, warden attendance, and administering any fines and penalty notices) per annum.
3. Opportunity costs (such as wardens being diverted from other duties)
4. The anticipated annual income

Response from the Labour portfolio holder (Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw)

The set-up costs for Idle were £5,000 for the machine, signage, works, legal advertising and consultation costs. As the legal order/consultation covered a number of sites, these costs were relatively small on a per-location basis. 

The only additional running costs will be for maintenance of the machine and replacement of tickets which is anticipated to be a maximum of £200 per annum. Council Wardens are deployed regularly to all parts of the district, so there will not be an adverse impact on additional diversionary activity of Wardens. 

The anticipated annual income from the Idle site based on 50% occupation at the all-day charge would be £20,000