West Lancs Council set to axe pay-and-display parking plans in Skelmersdale following consultation backlash

Oct 11 2012 by Rob Pattinson, Skelmersdale Advertiser

PLANS to extend pay-and-display parking at car parks in Yeadon and Sandy Lane are set to be scrapped following a consultation.

West Lancs council had included the proposal as part of a raft of cost cutting measures in the major service review to fill a £600,000 budget gap which were agreed upon in July.

But following a widespread consultation, full council will be presented with recommendations from officers to remove the pay-and-display proposals.

In documents that will go before councillors at a meeting of full council next Wednesday, officers say that following the consultation, “the proposal which the largest number of residents felt would have an impact on them is the extension of the pay-and-display parking system in Skelmersdale.

“Fourteen respondents feel it would have a significant impact on them and 11 feel it would have a moderate impact.”

Around half of residents who responded to the consultation strongly disagreed with the car parking proposal (22), while 17 agreed.Four stakeholders agreed while six disagreed.

The original plans were for charges to be set at 30p per hour, with a maximum stay of two hours, bringing in an extra £12,000 to council coffers.

The proposals were dogged by controversy after plans for pay-and-display charges to be introduced in Burscough were dropped in July while the Skelmersdale ones remained.

Other changes to original recommendations will see community centres in Tanhouse, Birch Green, Digmoor and Green Hill which have been earmarked for community transfer – and failing that closure by 2014 – to be offered initially to the management committees currently running them.

Remaining cutbacks, including reducing grants to parish councils and community chest funding available for grants and efficiency savings from audit fees, human resources and payroll and plumbing services remain.

The proposals in their current form would generate savings of £497,000, leaving a budget gap of £109,000 to be filled.

A total of 12 net job losses have also been earmarked, including eight posts at risk of redundancy – with the maximum anticipated costs of redundancies to be £116,000.

The review consultation ran from July 27 until September 14. The council sent out letters more than 300 local organisations inviting them to submit their views online, while others were sent in by post. The final decision will be made at full council.