Bedford Borough Mayor Dave Hodgson has at last accepted the proposal from the Council’s Conservative Group to scrap his Sunday parking charge at multi-storey car parks (MSCPs) in Bedford.
On 15th January 2014 Conservative Cllr Roger Rigby submitted a motion to a meeting of Full Council arguing that the Liberal Democrats should remove the £1 parking charge on Sundays that they introduced in April 2010. This was thrown out by the Mayor and his Liberal Democrat / Labour administration. The Sunday parking charge was one of 41 parking charges introduced by Mayor Hodgson since he has been in power.
Cllr Rigby, who first advocated cheaper parking charges at a Full Council meeting in October 2012, welcomed this ‘spectacular u-turn’. He said:
‘The Conservative Group welcomed last year’s decision to take up our call for cheaper car parking through the Saturday 2 hour free parking initiative. We now welcome this decision of the Mayor to remove the damaging Sunday parking charge even though his Liberal Democrats and Labour administration voted against this very proposal when it was requested by the Conservatives in January.
‘The Mayor has proved to be completely inept at managing town centre car parking with his 41 parking charge increases. He seems finally to have realised the harm he has done to the viability of the town centre with this spectacular u-turn of the Sunday charge he introduced in April 2010. Either that or there is an election coming next year.’