Backlash over plans to charge drivers at park Furious residents want rethink as council looks to raise cash
COUNCIL officers faced a wave of anger from residents over plans to introduce parking charges at a Sutton Coldfield beauty spot.
Birmingham City Council’s Steve Hollingworth and Matt Hageney met concerned members of the public to discuss the plans for Sutton Park.
But they faced a barrage of questions from an audience predominantly opposed to the proposals.
The council plans to introduce charges from 8am to 6pm – with a £2 charge for four hours and a £3 all-day charge, plus the option of a £50 annual season ticket.
The park is believed to have two million visits a year and has between 1,700 and 1,750 parking spaces.
Mr Hollingworth, service director for open space, said the council was at a ‘critical point’ having made £650 million of savings since 2010 but having to find another £80 million more the next three years. “We are in dire straits,” he said. Parks had been protected but £5 million – or a third – has been lost from the department’s budget. It means just 80 per cent of public grassed areas are now cut and eight acres of green space are sold off each year.
Mr Hollingworth said: “The park is deteriorating. We don’t want to make any more cuts and we are looking at other ways, like more commercialisation.”
The council officer said the approach – in particular parking charges – had been ‘reasonably successful’ at Cannon Hill Park in Edgbaston.
The plan is to roll out car parking charges across more parks in Birmingham, including Sutton Park and Lickey Hills, with a second Royal Town favourite, Rectory Park, also mentioned.
Mr Hageney, the city council’s parks commercialisation manager, said the council was mindful of the park’s ‘history and archaeology’ and did not want to over ‘urbanise’ the park. The aim was to ‘improve the surface areas’ of the roadways and the car parks, close off smaller car parks – mainly laybys for one or two cars – and improve accessibility with more disabled bays.
The 100-strong audience queried the financial model, with no breakdowns provided on costs or expenditure. Many pointed out that Cannon Hill Park could not be compared to Sutton Park. One has a single access route and car park, the other a host of entry points and parking areas and a national nature reserve.
Sutton town centre traders park inside Town Gate – and would park in surrounding roads and ‘ deserve to earn a crust’, one resident pointed out.
Another feared visitor numbers to the seven pubs, restaurants and cafes within the park, would be hit and could lead to job losses.
Town and city councillor David Pears, who also chairs the Sutton Park Advisory Committee, said: “People will park outside the park. Road safety problems will be caused. The cost of policing the park is too high to make fees profitable. The running of the park should be handed over to the local people.”
Sutton Town Council leader Cllr Simon Ward said the park should be run by the town council. Hon Alderman David Roy proposed a motion of no confidence in the city council’s proposals with overwhelming support from those present and just three objections.
There will now be a six-week consultation on the plan.