WEYBRIDGE
What really went on
Surrey County Council is responsible for deciding on-street parking controls.
Under the leadership of Dr Andrew Povey, Surrey County Council decided that on-street charges would be a good idea.
Almost everyone outside Surrey County Council disagreed. Residents, traders, visitors: all thought it would be a BAD idea. The economic case was flawed, and the charges would do far more harm than good.
Council opposition to the charges was led by Lib Dems. In an official Surrey petition started by a Lib Dem councillor over 26000 people said NO to the charges, and thousands more said no in local petitions.
Many Conservative county councillors did not want the charges, but still obeyed their 'whip' and voted for them - even though the sums did not add up.
Finally Dr Povey was deposed by his party. One of the first acts of his successor David Hodge was to reverse the on-street parking charges policy, and announce that borough local committees could decide for their own area.
On 28 November 2011, Elmbridge Local Committee decided to reverse the policy and scrap charges.
On-street parking charges - Surrey County Council backs down
On-street parking - pay here
On 28 November 2011, after months of controversy, Surrey County Council Elmbridge Local Committee finally reversed Surrey's unpopular decision to introduce on-street parking charges with parking meters in Weybridge shopping streets.
The current parking controls will remain in place, with limited free waiting of an hour, or in some places 20 minutes, to ensure a good level of turnover of spaces for shoppers.
This U-turn is obvious good sense. It follows many months of campaigning by residents, traders and Lib Dems across Surrey, which gradually eroded the proposals, and won exemption for Claygate and parts of Walton among other places, and 30 minutes free parking in other places.
But it took a palace revolution which overthrew the discredited Leader of Surrey County Council before the full U-turn became possible (see panel).
Here's what Weybridge Lib Dems said in March 2011
"26,285 people say NO to parking meters ...and only 14 say yes
Lib Dem petition shows massive opposition to on-street charges
People overwhelmingly oppose Surrey’s proposals to introduce charges for parking on our local main streets. The sheer level of opposition has been revealed by the official Surrey petition started by Lib Dem County Councillor Caroline Salmon. And local public opinion is fully justified. On-street charging would be hugely damaging to our community. It would:
> drive customers away from local traders
> worsen parking problems in our residential roads
discourage people from stopping off in Weybridge
We are deeply concerned about the impact on our town centre. The last thing most people want is to turn our high street simply into a through road, where no one stops off. It’s exactly the opposite of what’s needed!
Surrey has explicitly said that its plans cannot allow free parking for half an hour, because then the charges would not even pay for the cost of the parking meters. The Conservatives majority on Surrey County Council blocked a Lib Dem proposal for immediate debate on the issue. The debate won’t now happen until after the elections.
And on Elmbridge Borough Council, where the Lib Dems put forward a motion to oppose on-street charging, the Conservative majority all instead voted to “note” the charging proposals. Lib Dem Councillor Miles Macleod said he was saddened to see the Conservative elected representatives all voting for something they know the electorate overwhelmingly oppose. "