“We shouldn’t be bailing out Salisbury” say Conservative Councillors

In the Special Cabinet meeting held on Friday 19th August, Conservative Councillors spent over an hour bickering over their U-turn on Parking Charges, but finally agreed that Salisbury's 1hr parking charge should finally be restored following the Conservative administration's decision to scrap it earlier this year.

John Noeken, Conservative Cabinet Member, and Cllr for Amesbury East said in the meeting "We shouldn't be bailing out Salisbury" and criticised Salisbury City Council for failing to fix the parking problems.

After the meeting Lib Dem Brian Dalton responded saying "The Conservative Administration has begun to recognise it has to listen to what local people want, even if so far only Salisbury has seen concrete changes. However we still see Conservative Councillors around Salisbury bickering over the reintroduction of the 1hr Parking Charge. They're still not listening to local people."

"To accuse Salisbury City Council of failure shows how confused Conservative Councillors are. Despite repeated calls from the Lib Dems, Town and City Councils still have no power to set Parking Charges; those responsible are all to be found in the Conservative Administration on Wiltshire Council."

Jon Hubbard, Lib Dem Group Leader "The simple fact is that Wiltshire Council aren't "bailing out" Salisbury. This is about beginning to fix the mess that County Hall has made across Wiltshire."

Lib Dem Spokesperson for Neighbourood, Environment and Planning Howard Marshall said "Conservative Leader Jane Scott said today that the Cabinet never wanted to put in the 2hr charge, they were just responding to what they claim people of Salisbury wanted. If that's the case, then why did they force through increases in charges of 300%, against local people's objections in every town across Wiltshire. Local communities must take ownership of their car parks and be allowed to set prices that will not destroy town centres."

The Cabinet Extraordinary Meeting was held in Devizes on Friday 19th August 2011. The papers are available online here