Lib Dems to continue fight against Tory Parking Proposals

9.38.10pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 22nd Aug 2006

Eastbourne's Liberal Democrats vow to pull out all the stops and continue resisting the recent pay to park proposals made by East Sussex County Council Conservatives.

The Leader of the Lib Dem council group Cllr David Tutt said: "We warned local residents before May's local election not to take seriously the joint statement put out by the Tories on both the County and Borough Council. At the time we were convinced they were nothing more than a desperate pre-election gimmick to fool the voter. Sadly this has proven to be the case. I and my Lib Dem colleagues on the Borough Council have publicly stated that we believe the amended Pay to Park proposals, if implemented, would be wrong for the Town. We believe the only way to stop this ludicrous scheme is for the Borough Council to withdraw all co-operation with the County Council and to remove off-street parkingthe one area where the Borough still has control from the scheme. Only then will the County Council recognise that the people of Eastbourne want nothing to do with their parking proposal"

Stephen Lloyd, Lib Dem parliamentary spokesman added: "I think the response of the local Tories to their County colleagues so called amended parking plan has been pitiful. Firstly they put out a joint statement days before the local election which at best was naive or at worse spectacularly duplicitous. And now they say they will continue to 'discuss' the proposal. Either way Eastbourne is to suffer and the Borough Council simply cannot avoid the fact that local residents have been taken for a ride. Rest assured the Lib Dems will not give up this fight. We will continue to campaign every step of the way against the current parking proposals. They are due to be implemented in October 2007 but next year we have all - up Borough Council elections. The voter will then have a chance to decide whether Eastbourne should be run for the benefit of local people or for the benefit of Cllr Mathew Lock and his Tory colleagues. This has all been a bad business and does no credit to the ruling council on Eastbourne Borough Council."