The battle is not yet lost

says COUNCILLOR JOHN KIRKMAN

PLANS FOR pay parking in Bourne are well advanced, having been discussed in detail by the economy and environment policy development committee in Grantham last week (Thursday 11th March). I am not a member of this committee but did attend the meeting and was given permission to speak. Unfortunately, my efforts, along with those of Councillor Judy Smith (also Bourne East), who made a spirited protest against the charges, did not persuade the committee to leave things well alone.

The committee was being asked to recommend to the council via the cabinet, expenditure of £60,000 for the works associated with the introduction of car parking charges in Bourne. This is a necessary procedure because the money involved was not included in the annual budget which was agreed just a couple of weeks ago.

I raised many points on this issue, particularly the questionable financial reasoning to support the case. The revenue implications are estimated at £45,000 per annum, to pay staff and other expenses, and the income for Option 1 charges is estimated at £50,000. It is not rocket science to see that the projected surplus is just £5,000, resulting in a pay back period for the capital outlay of some 12 years, assuming that the estimate of income levels is correct. Given this state of affairs, it may be decided that the top level of fees be introduced i.e. £95,000 per annum.

The committee seemed to concentrate on the fact that Stamford and Grantham had pay parking and therefore Bourne should have it too. The members ignored the fact, or perhaps did not believe me when I pointed out that the retail provision in Bourne is different from that in the other two towns, a point which, incidentally, was made in the officer’s report to the committee.

We are a small town with many small shops that depend on occasional callers which is their lifeblood and to impose an additional charge whenever they come into town may well deter them and prompt them to take their custom elsewhere, to other, larger shopping centres such as Peterborough, or even Stamford and Grantham. The committee simply did not accept that charging will affect that situation, indeed one Grantham councillor suggested that all towns in South Kesteven should pay at the same rate as those levied in Grantham.

Another councillor, from Stamford, re-iterated the very flawed argument of “Why should Stamford residents subsidise the people of Bourne by providing free parking”. It is flawed because we in Bourne, or indeed any council tax payer in the district, could use the same argument against many of the services provided by the council, not least the £400,000 a year net cost to run Stamford Arts Centre.

Councillor Ken Joynson, who represents Deeping St James, went so far as to suggest that not only should Bourne pay for car parking but Market Deeping should too and I thought that distinctly odd from someone who actually lives and represents that particular area.

In the event, the committee voted by 11 to 4 in favour of the budgetary implications of introducing car parking charges for Bourne and the issue will now go forward to the cabinet and then to a full council meeting where a final decision will be made.

The fight is not totally lost. I and other Bourne councillors will have one final opportunity to stop the introduction of pay parking at the full council meeting on Thursday April 29th. If we can persuade the council not to agree to the £60,000 expenditure, then that should prevent charges from being imposed for the time being.

However, the task is immense because we will need a minimum of 30 votes from a total of 58 councillors to do so. I believe that this will be difficult to achieve and I have real fears that the wishes of the people in this area, petitions and all, will be completely ignored.

WRITTEN 15th MARCH 2004

John Kirkman

For a biographical note of Councillor John Kirkman see a previous article
The council tax explained