New charges on the way at 10 free Bristol car parks, including two next to doctors’ surgeries, have been branded a “tax on people for being ill” which will “kill” high streets. It follows the city council’s cabinet approving the fees last month despite an outcry from scores of residents who labelled the decision to introduce pay and display as “discriminatory”.
Shoppers, GP patients and churchgoers who use Westbury Hill car park in Westbury-on-Trym turned out in force at the meeting to vent their dismay at the £1-an-hour, seven-days-a-week charges coming this autumn. Now cross-party councillors have backed their calls for the idea to be scrapped or scaled back, such as keeping the first hour free, while the Labour cabinet member in charge of transport defended the proposals and said details could be worked through later with the community.
Conservative group leader and Henbury & Brentry ward Cllr Mark Weston told a Bristol City Council budget scrutiny meeting: “I don’t understand the intellectual gymnastics the council goes through. We can afford to throw tens of millions of pounds at the Colston Hall [now Bristol Beacon] because we recognise the value it provides to the city but we are going to start charging a tiny amount in small car parks because we don’t recognise the importance they have to secondary high streets.
