Agenda item

Parking Permit Charges

It was moved by Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, seconded by Councillor Penny Baker, that this Council:-

(a)       welcomes the recent High Court ruling that Barnet Council had acted unlawfully by driving up parking permit fees as a landmark victory for motorists;

(b)       notes that as a result of this Administration’s budgets, parking permit charges have been hiked by up to 260% and that the Council looks set to pocket a £1.2 million surplus from the zones this year;

(c)        confirms that this hike has not only hit struggling families but also damaged small businesses across Sheffield;

(d)       believes it is wrong for an administration to fleece local motorists to pay for their own political pet projects; and

(e)       calls for an immediate review of parking permit charges in light of the recent High Court ruling.

Note: With the agreement of Council and at the request of Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, the above Motion was altered by the deletion of Paragraph (d) of the Notice of Motion as included in the Summons for this meeting.

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Robert Murphy, seconded by Councillor Jillian Creasy, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the addition of new paragraphs (d) and (e) and the re-lettering of subsequent paragraphs as follows:-

(d)       believes Pay and Display machines are an integral part of Permit Parking Zones and that Pay and Display enables drivers from outside using the area to contribute to the upkeep of schemes that benefit all motorists using the zone; and

(e)       believes it is unfair that residents and businesses in the often deprived areas adversely affected by parking should subsidise City wide transport spending.

It was then moved by Councillor Leigh Bramall, seconded by Councillor Denise Fox, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of all the words after the words “That this Council” and the substitution of the following words therefor:-

(a)       regrets that the need to increase parking permit charges is a result of the unprecedented level of cuts imposed upon the Council by the Government and notes that the Council has had to save over £180 million in the past three years;

(b)       acknowledges comments by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Rt. Hon. Danny Alexander MP, that local government has “borne the brunt of deficit reduction” and notes that whilst Sheffield is hit with heavy cuts, wealthier areas of the country are receiving next to no cuts at all and believes that this is fundamentally unfair;

(c)        notes that, even with the increases, the cost of Sheffield resident parking permits are now £36 per year which is the same level they were before 2010 and, with the huge level of cuts imposed on the Council, understands it is no longer possible to maintain the reduced rate;

(d)       deplores the hypocrisy of the main opposition group who doubled the pay and display rates in 2011 and, after campaigning against a rise in the price of permits from £10 to £20, they did a U-turn and failed to reverse it in their 2013/14 budget proposal;

(e)       regrets the misleading nature of the Leader of the main opposition group’s motion who has included all income from pay and display and enforcement, adding other income to make it look like the Administration is making profit from people who have permits when this is not the case; and

(f)        notes that the argument the main opposition group are making which includes enforcement and pay and display income, figures from the 2011/12 budget which the previous Administration passed produced a surplus of £870k and regrets that this embarrassing level of hypocrisy demonstrates there is no length that the Leader of the main opposition group will not go to, to score a cheap political point no matter how misleading or disingenuous.

On being put to the vote, the amendment was carried.

The votes on the above amendment were ordered to be recorded and were as follows:-

For the amendment (55)

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The Deputy Lord Mayor (Cllr Peter Rippon) and Councillors Julie Dore, Jack Scott, Roy Munn, Clive Skelton, Ian Saunders, Chris Rosling-Josephs, Helen Mirfin-Boukouris, Bryan Lodge, Denise Fox, Karen McGowan, Jayne Dunn, Stuart Wattam, Jackie Drayton, Ibrar Hussain, Talib Hussain, Mohammed Maroof, Geoff Smith, Mary Lea, Mazher Iqbal, Joyce Wright, Steven Wilson, Garry Weatherall, Sheila Constance, Chris Weldon, Alan Law, Steve Jones, Tim Rippon, Cate McDonald, George Lindars-Hammond, Robert Johnson, Janet Bragg, Pat Midgley, Terry Fox, Anthony Downing, David Barker, Isobel Bowler, Nikki Bond, Qurban Hussain, Lynn Rooney, John Campbell, Martin Lawton, Sioned-Mair Richards, Peter Price, Leigh Bramall, Gill Furniss, Richard Crowther, Philip Wood, Neale Gibson, Nikki Sharpe, Adam Hurst, Alf Meade, Jackie Satur, Mick Rooney and Ray Satur.

Against the amendment (19)

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Councillors Simon Clement-Jones, Shaffaq Mohammed, Robert Murphy and Jillian Creasy, Rob Frost, Sylvia Anginotti, Colin Ross, Joe Otten, Penny Baker, Sue Alston, Andrew Sangar, Cliff Woodcraft, Denise Reaney, Ian Auckland, Bob McCann, Katie Condliffe, David Baker, Alison Brelsford and Trevor Bagshaw.

Abstained on the amendment (1)

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The Lord Mayor (Cllr Vickie Priestley).

The original Motion, as amended, was then put as a Substantive Motion in the following form and carried:-