Saturday, September 29, 2007

Sunday Parking charges U-Turn by Council


Havering Council have announced a spectacular U-Turn, concerning the proposed parking charges for Collier Row, however the measures do not go far enough concerning the recently agreed Parking Policy. The Tory controlled Council have this week announced that they will not charge for Sunday parking in our town Centre, however, you will still have to pay Monday to Saturday.

Before the summer, Residents Association Councillors from across the Borough launched petitions in the outlying town Centres and collected almost 20,000 objectors to the proposals to start charging in areas such as Collier Row, Hornchurch, Elm park, Rainham, Cranham & Upminster.

Cllr Andrew Mann said “Whilst we welcome the decision, not to charge parkers on a Sunday, the Council have still ignored some 20,000 people by continuing with their proposals to charge six days a week, this is just another tax on shopping and will be detrimental to our town centres”.

Signatures were collected from around the Borough and include:

Collier Row 2236
Upminster 4715
Cranham 2803
Hornchurch 2997
Elm Park 2629
Cherry tree 344
On line Poll 551

The petitions were handed into the Mayor at a recent Council meeting.

Mawneys coordinator, Graham Price said “ Although the Administration has been forced into a U-Turn on this issue, it only deals with Sunday parking, but the charges will still apply in Romford Town centre, our smaller shopping centres will suffer with week day charges”

Cllr Mann concluded “They have still not looked at the parking charges for weekday parking in our small town centres and our argument is still the same, more needs to be done to support out of town shopping, our local communities will suffer if these charges are introduced”.

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