Controversial proposals to charge visitors at Birmingham beauty spots faces a new challenge - full details here

Opposition councillors are fighting back against plans to introduce new parking charges at three Birmingham beauty spots.

The financial crisis at Birmingham City Council has seen a massive wave of ‘savings’ and cuts to local services, impacting bin collections, libraries, street lighting, culture, adult social care day centres and much, much more.

One controversial proposal is to bring in parking charges at Sutton Park, Sheldon Country Park and Lickey Hills Country Park – three of the city’s most popular attractions.

The Labour-run council’s plans have been met with backlash however, with 919 respondents of a consultation (78.4 per cent) feeling access to Lickey Hills should remain free.

For Sheldon Country Park, that figure was 120 respondents (65.9 per cent) while for Sutton Park it was 2,741 respondents (68.2 per cent).

After the proposals took an important step at a recent cabinet meeting, both Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors said they are planning to challenge the decision by requesting to ‘call-in’ a bid for further scrutiny.

These requests are now set to be considered at a neighbourhoods scrutiny meeting next Monday (June 2), where the committee must decide whether to ‘call-in’ the decision or not.

“Where the committee does decide to call-in a decision, the ‘re-consideration’ which is then required must take place at a meeting of the full cabinet,” a council report says.

The Local Conservatives say they are hoping to convince the committee in a bid to reverse the decision.

Coun Ewan Mackey (Conservative, Sutton Roughley), deputy leader of the opposition, said: “These parks were given to the people of this city for their use in perpetuity, for the benefit of their health and well-being.

“They weren’t given to the council to be used as an out in Labour’s ongoing cycle of crises.”

He went on to argue that introducing charges would “create a barrier” and “fundamentally undermines the principle that our green spaces should be free to access for residents”.

The call-in request, by Conservative councillors Pears, Delaney and Parkin, adds that the consultation responses show an “overwhelming opposition” to the proposals.

A request for a call-in was also lodged by Liberal Democrat councillors Paul Tilsley and Colin Green, who argued the public consultation results “have been disregarded”.

Focusing on Sheldon Country Park, group leader Coun Roger Harmer added at a cabinet meeting this month: “It doesn’t take much drop-off of income that you’re actually not making any money on this at all.

“The others are much more robust in financial terms so I will ask that Sheldon is looked at again.”

‘Reasonable to ask park users to contribute financially’

Responding to such concerns, cabinet member for environment Coun Majid Mahmood stressed the council was not removing access to the parks.

“But we do have to try to bring in revenue to support the maintenance of the parks,” he said.

“I agree that parks are one of our greatest assets in the city,” he went on to say. “The pricing has been reduced significantly than [current charges] at Cannon Hill Park.”

He continued that a third of the city does not drive and West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker’s plans to bring the region’s buses back under public control could help further connect communities and strategic parks.

He added: “I asked officers to ensure [the risk register] is as comprehensive as it can be and it is.”

Coun Mahmood also said that there would be a grace period of 30 minutes and free parking permits for park volunteers.

Acknowledging the opposition to the proposed charges, a recent council report added: “The introduction of parking charges is often controversial and unpopular as users are asked to pay for something that has previously been free.”

However, it continued that the projected income from the parking charges still falls short of the cost of maintaining the three parks in question.

“Therefore it is deemed reasonable to ask park users to contribute financially to the upkeep and maintenance of these parks,” it said.

“Despite the introduction of parking charges, there will still be a requirement for financial support from the council’s general fund to maintain and manage these parks.”

The report went on to say there was more support for revised parking charges which were lower than the consulted ones.

Both the original and revised proposed charges for each of the parks can be found below:

Original proposals:

£2.20 for up to 2 hours, £3.30 for 2 to 4 hours, £5.00 all day

Cost of annual parking permit price to be determined

Chargeable hours of 9am to 6pm, 365 days a year

Revised proposals:

£1 per hour up to 4 hours, £5.00 all day

£52 per annum

No change to chargeable hours (9am to 6pm, 365 days a year); a 30 minute ‘grace’ period is proposed in addition

Sutton Park:

Original proposals:

£2.20 for up to 2 hours, £3.30 for 2 to 4 hours, £5.00 all day

Cost of annual parking permit price to be determined

Chargeable hours of 9am to 6pm, 365 days a year

Revised proposals:

£1 per hour up to 4 hours, £5.00 all day

£52 per annum

No change to chargeable hours (9am to 6pm, 365 days a year); a 30 minute ‘grace’ period is proposed in addition

Sheldon Country Park:

Original proposals:

£2.20 for up to 2 hours, £3.30 for 2 to 4 hours, £5.00 all day

Cost of annual parking permit price to be determined

Chargeable hours of 9am to 6pm, 365 days a year

Revised proposals:

£0.75 per hour up to 3 hours, £3.50 all day

£52 per annum

No change to chargeable hours (9am to 6pm, 365 days a year); a 30 minute ‘grace’ period is proposed in addition

Cabinet ultimately agreed this month to delegate to the relevant cabinet member the decision to proceed with the Sheldon Country Park and Sutton Park charging schemes and the decision to introduce a scheme for charging and enforcement at the Lickey Hills site “utilising private parking arrangements”.

Several issues have plagued the council according to external auditors, including the equal pay debacle, inadequate budget setting, poor service management, demand led pressures and the disastrous implementation of a new IT system.

Labour politicians have also highlighted the impact of funding cuts over the past decade or so on local government.