Parking Charges Review an 'Expensive Farce'

6.07.44pm GMT Thu 25th Feb 2010

Eastbourne residents have reacted with anger at the County Council's latest 'parking charges' fiasco.

The Conservative-run County Council has finally launched a review of the controversial parking scheme, four months later than it originally promised.

However the Council won't be consulting residents living outside the current parking zones, even though the much-criticized parking charges could soon be extended into roads outside of the town centre.

The Council's review is also ignoring the key question of whether the parking charges should be scrapped.

The cost of the review is estimated to be £150,000 - which is coming out of the pockets of local taxpayers.

Eastbourne Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesman Stephen Lloyd, who has led the opposition to the parking charges, said, "This is an expensive farce. It ignores the anger of Eastbourne and Willingdon residents who want the scheme scrapped and at the same time it is wasting taxpayers' money."

Eastbourne Borough Council Leader David Tutt added, "As the Eastbourne Herald poll showed, nine out of ten local residents simply do not want the parking charges. The Lib Dems will continue to fight for them to be scrapped."