Two councillors are gathering signatures on a petition against charges for parking at Woodingdean parks.
The Conservative councillors are hoping to protect Happy Valley and Central Park from Brighton and Hove City Council’s plans to introduce parking charges at parks across the city.
Councillor Dee Simson and Councillor Steve Bell’s petition says that Woodingdean residents should not have to pay the price for the council’s poor budget management.
The petition runs until it will be presented to the council’s Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee on Thursday, 14 March.
Councillor Dee Simson said: “Local residents are absolutely incensed by the thought that they could be charged to use their local parks.
“It’s widely used for recreation for the play park for little children, lots of dog walkers use it.
“In Woodingdean, these parks only serve local people and lots of people need cars to get to them with their families.
“Because we’ve got no parking restrictions in Woodingdean, it just means that people will park all the way up the road.
“It’s not even going to bring in the money, if that’s what the council wants to do, it’s not going to be a big revenue pot, because people will just park just outside.
“Central Park is the most ridiculous one, because there are eight places in Central Park and they actually supply the Bowls Club, which is very active.
“There are lots of areas where the council has spent money that hasn’t been financially prudent and wasted it.
“I know they’ve got to find more money, but it can come from other places, it’s not going to generate much income and make a vast difference.”
Cllr Bell spoke out against previous proposals to start charging for parking at Happy Valley park in 2020 saying: “Happy Valley is the green lung of Woodingdean used by thousands of people of all ages.”
“The council wanting to charge people to now use that space is abhorrent.”
You can find the petition here: https://www.brightonhoveconservativecouncillors.com/campaigns/stop-council-charging-parking-woodingdean-parks
B&H City Council must be very keen to start charging Woodingdean Residents to park outside their houses.
Shame that so many dog walkers in Happy Valley and the surrounding areas drop their dogs’ bags of poo everywhere but the dog poo bins/their own bins.