Council to ask opinions on plan for residents to pay £60 to park outside own home

Wirral Council plans to ask for opinions on whether people should pay £60 to park outside their own home in 15 areas. The local authority initially said it would be bringing the new charges in on October 28.

At the same time as announcing a public consultation in September seeking feedback on plans to introduce charges in 22 free parks and roads in three coastal areas across the borough, the council said it also planned to increase charges by the end of October for areas with parking permits and car parks that currently have charges.

Wirral Council doesn’t have to legally ask for public feedback before making these changes but just let people know they are happening. However notices displayed on street posts were later taken down following backlash from Labour councillors in Liscard though as of October 21, notices on its website still said the charges “will be coming in” in a week’s time.

If the changes are eventually approved, parking permits could cost £60 for residents and £40 for visitors. For car parks, the council plans to charge £1.20 for every hour up to £6 for four hours or over while traders’ parking permits will cost £720 a year and permits for the Wirral Country Park cost £120 a year.

Roughly 6000 permits have been issued across Wirral with a third of these being in Liscard. This raised concerns among its three Labour councillors who said it was “such an unfairly targeted proposal” and argued “residents should not be penalised simply for not having houses with private driveways.”

At an environment, climate emergency, and transport committee meeting on October 21, Liscard councillor Graeme Cooper asked whether it was council officers’ plan to introduce the charges with little notification to councillors and the public and if they “genuinely believe that putting two posters up in roads, just A4 posters, was an acceptable way to ensure all residents are informed.”

He pointed out the incorrect notices were still up on the council website which was creating a “confused picture” for people including himself. In response, the committee chair Cllr Liz Grey said the situation was “far from ideal” and corrections needed to be made.

She said the council had received “a considerable number of comments” on the issue and councillors at a future meeting will think about asking the public for feedback on plans to bring in any new permit charges across the borough. After this, any feedback would go back to councillors to consider before approving any changes.

Cllr Cooper asked the council to “work together on it” and publicise the charges now won’t be coming in next week arguing there had been no communication from the council to correct the error. While it was pointed out the change had been sent to all councillors, it was agreed the council should publicly correct it given the organisation was originally responsible for the miscommunication.

The council was also asked about the potential for parking charges to negatively impact New Brighton with fears it could lead to the loss of jobs. Cllr Grey in response said there was evidence that “carefully coordinated pricing charges do not negatively impact business,” pointing to a Transport Research Laboratory study of UK towns and cities that found “customers usually adapt their travel behaviour in a more responsible manner by consolidating trips, for instance weekly shopping trips and they spend as much if not more in local shops.”

She said on the Wirral, parking machine data from before and after standardised charges were brought in across the borough in 2021 over 25 weeks had shown no visible drop after the charges were brought in. However concerns were raised about studies in the council’s parking strategy that were based in the US.

It was also revealed during the meeting that the investigation into a storm in April that led to flooding behind the nearly £20m West Kirby sea wall was drawing to a close. The findings will be published at a later date.

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