Reading Conservatives have welcomed news that Reading Borough Council has decided on a partial u-turn on its decision to introduce new car park tariffs. 

People parking in Dunstall and Recreation Roads in Tilehurst and Chester Street car park in Caversham will now have the first hour of parking free of charge following intervention by Conservative Councillors. The Council, in discussion with NCP, had intended to charge for all parking at these car parks. 

However, Conservative requests for a restructuring of other charges to reduce the increases on short to medium charges at town centre car parks have been refused. This means that increases of 25%+ will now go ahead in many car parks.

Conservative Transport Spokesman Councillor Richard Willis said, "I welcome the news that we have been able to reduce the impact of these charging increases for local car park users in Tilehurst and Caversham but fear that the town centre increases will damage our fragile retail economy. I cannot see the logic of penalising short to medium term parking while cutting some long term charges. However, if Conservatives had not 'called in' this decision we would not have had the opportunity to discuss and influence the proposed increases. We have achieved this improvement as Opposition Councillors; how much better it would be if the people of Reading chose us to run the town in this May's local elections".

The original decision to increase charges was to have been put through by the Council's "Decision Book" process whereby Councillors are notified of decisions taken by Council Officers under delegated powers. Conservatives spotted this attempt to sneak the decision through and challenged it through the "Call In" process which requires three Councillors to demand further consideration of a delegated decision. The amended charging regime is a result of this Conservative call in.

11th February 2010