Fenland District Council must rule out car parking charges on all of its car parks and rule out any transfer of ownership that will lead to a charging regime.

Fenland’s market towns benefit significantly from free parking, they offer a significant advantage to Fenland’s town centre businesses and help the viability of our town centres.  Fenland should be using free parking as a selling point, not getting rid of it. 

In the budget last year, the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave all Cambridgeshire councils a unique opportunity to financially benefit from growing the county’s economy.  Sending a message to businesses that Fenland’s short term financial interests are more important than growing our economy is a deterrent to inward investment and will harm the whole district, not just the town centres.

Whilst the debate is taking place, the uncertainty will make it difficult to re-let shops, setting our town centres on a potential downward spiral from which it might prove difficult to ever recover – harming our economy at a time when we should be investing in and promoting our town centres. 

Furthermore, we believe that going into an election campaign with full awareness of the importance of this issue, yet saying nothing, does a disservice to the residents of the District, undermines confidence in politics, and reinforces negative views about the honesty of politicians.

In short, even considering pay parking in our town centres has the potential to harm the entire District and the electorate’s confidence in Fenland District Council.