A campaigner has called on Brighton and Hove City Council to ensure parking charges near the city centre will not go up after a review.
At the end of last month it emerged that a big rise in charges was due to affect a number of parking zones from Monday 17 July.
There was outrage from staff at the Royal Sussex County Hospital who park in the zone H area of Kemp Town, where charges were due to increase from £5.50 to £15.70 for four hours and from £7.60 to £22.70 for 11 hours.
One and two-hour parking was scheduled to go up from £1.40 to £5.60 and from £2.80 to £9.30 respectively.
Other affected areas included zone N in central Hove, including the town hall and station area, zone J, which includes streets near London Road station area and Fiveways, and zone C, around Queen’s Park.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s new Labour council administration announced it was reviewing the rises, and these will now not go ahead this month.
Friends of Brighton and Hove Citizens member Laura King, who stood in the local elections in May, said that the sharp increase could drive workers to leave their jobs and move to other areas, leading to businesses closing.
Ms King said that councils were not permitted to make “unreasonable profits” from parking after a ruling in 2013 when the RAC took Barnet Council to court.
In the High Court, in London, Mrs Justice Lang said that the 1984 Road Traffic Regulation Act was “not a fiscal measure and does not authorise the authority to use its powers to charge local residents for parking in order to raise surplus revenue for other transport purposes”.
The council’s parking charge surplus has been used to cover the cost of concessionary bus fares for older people and the disabled and to subsidise some bus routes and transport-related spending.
In 2021-22, surplus parking income went up to £20.5 million from £15.1 million the previous year.
Following inquiries by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Councillor Sankey confirmed the proposed increases are paused.
Councillor Sankey said: “Last week, we announced a review into parking fees and charges, due to have been introduced this month.
“Since then, council officers have been working to assess what options may be available to us going forward.
“More information about the review will be communicated by the chair of the Transport and Sustainability committee, councillor Trevor Muten when it meets on Thursday.
“A report will also be presented to the Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee next week.
“We’re working diligently to ensure we balance the financial challenges we face while taking people’s understandable concerns about rising prices during a cost-of-living crisis carefully into account.”
The Transport and Sustainability Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Thursday 6 July.
The Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Thursday 13 July.
Both meetings are scheduled for webcast on the council website.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story suggested that the price hikes would still go ahead this month. Brighton and Hove News is happy to make it clear this is not the case.
Difficult choice in a cost of living crisis when the money raised helps fund bus users and disabled with cheaper services. I am confused though as a previous article said that Greens were responsible for a drop in parking money. This one says surplus has gone up from £15 to 20million. I think those who don’t have a car should be helped first. The hospital by default should be easily reached by public transport. You shouldnt need to own a car to get to an NHS hospital
“They’re blaming the Greens for the parking charge hikes but are quite happy to implement them despite national publicity.”
Just as we suspected. Labour are just as big at lying and incompetence as their predecessors. If Laura King is starting a campaign, I would be happy to join it.
As if the Conservatives wouldn’t do it?
If Councils weren’t being bankrupted with cuts of up to 60% over the past decade, they wouldn’t be searching for ways of alternative funding!
Just to clarify, an earlier version of the story suggested that the parking hikes were still happening this month. The story has now been amended to make it clear they’re not, pending the review.
I’ve lived in Brighton my whole life and for thr past 3 years, I haven’t set foot in the centre of Brighton or the seafront.
Buses are too expensive and parking….it’s all unaffordable!
And that’s then!
Bus fares are currently capped at £2 for any single journey – anywhere. You can go as far as Tunbridge Wells or Eastbourne for £2 if you wish, as well as anywhere in Brighton. The cheapest it’s been for years – through the Government scheme that’s just been extended until the end of October. https://www.buses.co.uk/2-fare
I don’t really understand the point that Laura is trying to make here? The Greens introduced the charges and Labour says that they will review them. To me this reads like Labour are not going to implement the proposed rise. After Laura’s failed council run, it seems she has continued her winning campaign tactic of “becoming furious about cars and making things up”.
Read the article – the charges were already in the pipeline, and had there not been public outrage, they would have gone through.
It matters not whether it was the Greens or Labour who came up with the plans – the point is that Labour would have implemented them without a murmur. Guilty as charged!
The Transport Dept at BHCC treats the motorist as a cash cow. Apart from the ‘metered’ parking, it has an agenda to roll out cpzs across the city, so you , and your visitors, will soon be charged to park outside your house. Coming to an area of the city near you
The same Laura King who got a massive 2% in the recent election? Here’s a few more of her greatest hits:
In one post from August 2020, she says that a “cabal of billionaires” appear to run the world “to tell us we can’t use cash any more or have our human rights back until we all submit to a vaccine to make them even richer with no guarantee of success and no indemnity insurance against injury either”.
Another post from October 2020 details a trip by Ms King to an anti-lockdown protest in London, describing the event as “the new civil rights movement”. She said: “Roll on the international crimes against humanity trials where our leaders will be held to account for what they’ve done to us and our country. “Wouldn’t it be ironic if, having swept away our human rights, they found themselves condemned to face a firing squad or lethal injection?”
Source: The Argus (09/04/2023)
Quadrupling city parking charges is tantamount to racketeering.
Can someone please explain how this action is supporting residents and businesses through the cost of living crisis, as per the Labour manifesto promises?
Residents and visitors are being punished through the council’s deliberate and short-sighted removal of over a thousand paid parking bays, unsurprisingly, resulting in a financial black hole.
Stupidity at its finest, agreed by both the Greens and Labour back in February.
Just to clarify, an earlier version of the story suggested that the parking hikes were still happening this month. The story has now been amended to make it clear they’re not, pending the review.
It’s good to see the B&H News article has achieved something already. The former council website announcement offered no information and my neighbour was starting to panic about the £400 plus parking permit he was about to be charged for.
Jo, is that 100% confirmed (that the hikes are not happening until the review has been completed)?
Did someone in Labour confirm that?
I really think as part of this review, there needs to be an overhaul on the visitor permits situation to make them available in greater quantities, and easier to access for residents.
There needs to be an overhaul of the Transport department at BHCC. It is overpopulated and seems to be only interested in screwing the motorist and rolling out barmy cycle schemes. Who will be accountable for the present debacle that is the Western Road ‘improvements’?
Will everyone who’s already paid too much for their new parking permits now get a refund?
My permit runs out next week. What are we meant to put on our windscreens if our permit runs out before the review and we are not paying the new prices?
Will all parking tickets be suspended or refunded?
Clear information needed from the Council on multiple issues but all we’ve got from them so far is word salad.
Let’s be honest, it started with “We’re in this together” and has ended with a cost of living crisis has been brought on by national and local government policy. lockdowns, furloughs, war, printing of over £100bn in recent years. Locally the cost of council tax, parking etc continue to rise year on year. Let’s hope that finally people are starting to say no, and we can start unwinding this insanity and create something far, far, far better and without the need for food banks going forwards.
I run a small business in Hove and have done for 16.5 years. I travel over an hour to and from work and have survived recession’s and covid. . .just. I have never been allowed a permit so pay daily for parking. My clients pay to park whilst attending their appointments, many of whom are elderly and disabled. I wrote to the council, stating my concerns for small business’s and our clients. This is part of Brigit’s response , word for word . . . . . Long term, is it possible for you and your employee’s to switch to cycling as a method of transport? I have recently started cycling to work, and it has transformed my life – no more hunting for parking spaces and I exercise more. In addition, I generally take a similar amount of time on most journeys within Brighton and Hove. Please do consider making the switch to a bike or cargo bike! Not once did she mention small businesses or our clients. I don’t hold out much hope and can foresee many small businesses shutting and the streets being empty.