Council "consults" on Blue Badge Charges
May 9, 2010 8:54 PM
Cllr Anna Jones with Blue Badge petition in Epsom High Street
The Borough Council is embarking upon widespread consultation concerning proposals to charge Blue Badge holders for parking in its car parks. The survey has been sent to 52 local groups via the Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) and to several other local stakeholders. It is available on the council's website until 17th May and will be sent to the council's own Citizens Panel. More consultation via Focus groups will take place on 27th May.
Cllr Colin Taylor commented "This is an admission that what the RA told us was 'consultation' was inadequate. We got no proper answers to the questions I asked about this at the last council meeting. It is clear that the RA don't believe in consulting people, just in doing the bare minimum to avoid breaking the law. They tried to present this mean-spirited idea to their followers as falling into line with practice elsewhere. This simply isn't true, but they just don't care if Epsom & Ewell becomes the only council in the area to charge Blue Badge holders in all its car parks."
The Traffic Order advertising the charges for Blue Badge holders will apparently go ahead next week, well before the results of consultation are known. The timing is geared toward any objections to the charges resulting from the advertisement needing to be debated at the council's Environment Committee meeting on 30th June.
Local Lib Dem councillors have been running two petitions against the charges, one on paper and one on-line. They will be presented to the council well in advance of Environment Committee meeting, hopefully to add weight to the results of any consultation. Whether or not the ruling group will be prepared to backtrack on its earlier decision remains to be seen.
Cllr Anna Jones, who set up the on-line petition, said "Comments on our on-line petition website make it clear that Blue Badge holders will simply shop elsewhere. The last-minute concession of an extra hour of parking won't keep their business in Epsom and is complicated to administer. Yet again the RA fail to listen to the residents."