Council upholds plan to increase parking charges

A council has voted to uphold plans to increase parking charges across a district.

Tariffs will rise by 20% at authority owned car parks in Sudbury, Hadleigh and Lavenham in Suffolk, Babergh District Council said.

The decision was made in a cabinet meeting in January and examined during an Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on Thursday.

Paul Clover, a Conservative councillor, said: "Town centres thrive due to having free accessibility - if we continue to ramp up the entrance fee, they will gradually fade away and disappear."

The increase would see an extra charge of between 20p and 50p for stays of up to four hours at short-stay car parks and for parking between two hours and all day at long-stay sites.

Up until 2025, the council had offered free-of-charge car parking for up to three hours.

The decision comes as the authority faces an £8.5m funding gap by the end of March 2030.

Clover said the principles of good decision-making were breached and the changes were not based on due consultation.

He said: "When considering what high streets contribute to our local economy, we simply cannot allow this to happen."

Deborah Saw, a Green Party councillor and deputy leader of the council, emphaised the financial situation of the council.

She said: "Every year it becomes more and more difficult to respond to this new reality, but we have taken difficult decisions while preserving the services we give to our residents."

She said there were different factors that impacted the success or failure of a retailer and car parking was one of them.

However, she added, while businesses have come to the authority with a range of issues, car parking has not been one of them.

Committee members were asked to determine if increasing charges was proportionate to the council's goal of achieving full cost recovery, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Members were also asked if due consultation in relation to the changes had taken place.

Saw said it had listened to residents and had decided against further car parking proposals.

During the meeting, the authority decided against charging for parking on Sundays and delayed proposals for specific arrangements for Pin Mill car park.

Councillors voted for the initial decision to be upheld and implemented immediately, with five votes for and one against.

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