Northampton Liberal Democrats

A full response to Cllr Palethorpe's Chronicle & Echo letter of 4 August

Councillor David Palethorpe clearly sees himself as the attack rottweiller of the Conservative's Borough Council Group. His recent letter to the Chronicle & Echo (4 August) demonstrates a high level of political knock-about - but no political accuracy or understanding.

He makes several claims:-

· That the Liberal Democrats have reneged on an agreed budget.

· That Liberal Democrats have somehow done a U-turn by describing the recent changes to the Market Square as 'disappointing'.

· That, somehow, Liberal Democrats are 'inconsistent'.

To answer each in turn:-

1. The Budget & Car Parking Charges

Cllr Palethorpe continues to confuse the budget - which we all agreed in February - which includes a plan to raise £ ½ million extra from car parking charges in 2006-07 with the reality on the ground. Currently the Borough Council is not raising the planned income and people are complaining at the high level of car parking charges. In order to meet, or at least come close to the budgeted income the Council needs to take action now. The Conservative's failure to do so will, if current uptake of car parking continues, result in a large deficit at the end of the year.

I said in my letter to the Chronicle & Echo (published ??/8/06) :-

"If he (Cllr Palethorpe) or his Tory colleagues care to look at the data for car-park usage he will see very clearly that, in the first few weeks of the new charges, income is very significantly below expectations. It seems people are simply not willing to pay the increased charges.

If this continues the Council will not raise the income anticipated from its car parks and town centre businesses will suffer as people take their trade elsewhere.

A budget is a plan, a plan of income and expenditure over the year. If our income is below expectations the time to act is now - not at the end of the year when a large deficit has built up.

Liberal Democrats called for a review of parking charges to get more people into the town centre, deliver more customers to local businesses, increase the Council's income from its car-parks and, last but not least, to help low paid shop and office staff for whom the new charges are a particular burden."

I am not sure I can put it more clearly. I am certain that, however clearly I put it, the Conservatives will conspire politically to fail to understand and claim that, whatever we say, is a dastardly plot.

Liberal Democrats have suggested some alternatives that might solve the current impasse. They include:-

· Develop a pricing strategy to encourage the economic, social and cultural vitality of the town. We first raised this in March 2004 when we 'called in' the Tory administration's decision on car parking charges that year. The Conservative administration continues to ignore this sensible suggestion.

· Establish a partnership with town centre businesses (for example, through the Town Centre Partnership) to provide lower cost parking for key, low paid workers in each company.

· Review the discounting of monthly and annual car parking tickets to increase the advantages of purchasing a season ticket. Introduce a quarterly season ticket. Consider an 'easy payment' scheme to encourage the take up of season tickets.

· Re-designate the most convenient car parking areas e.g. The Ridings, St Peters Way and the lower floors of town centre multi-storeys) as 'shoppers' car parks so they are not used for long stay parking but are available for those visiting and spending money in the town centre.

· Re-price the upper floors of town centre multi-storeys (which are frequently empty) to make them cheaper for long stay parking so attracting more people into them.

· Open out-of-centre car parks close to existing bus routes - for example, at Sixfields where there is plenty of space about 200 yards from the Weedon Road bus routes - as an instant informal 'park and ride'.

We have identified a problem - that the current car park pricing is failing to raise the budgeted income - and have proposed a number of solutions. If Liberal Democrats were the Administration on the Council a solution would, by now, be in place. Sadly, until next May at least, we are the opposition, the Conservatives are the administration so nothing has happened.

2. The Market Square

Liberal Democrat Councillor and former Mayor of Northampton, Sally Beardsworth, said that she is disappointed at the new layout of the Market Square.

The Market Square is the historic heart of Northampton. It should be the jewel in our town's crown. To be that we need to revitalise the market itself and extend the use of the Square into the evenings - at least during a significant portion of the year. This should include encouraging entertainment in the square, bringing in new events and an evening continental 'café culture' during the summer months.

The new 'entertainment space' may be the start we need. However, until we see some real, exciting events in this space and have established that the new attractions are sustainable, the jury is out. A bouncy castle alone is disappointing. We are promised other attractions including a French Market, a German Christmas Market and more. Liberal Democrats hope these will succeed and will breath new life into the Market Square.

However, the fundamental problem of the Market Square remains - once the market closes the stalls remain, standing in serried ranks preventing the use of this fabulous space for anything else. The market traders like the current stalls - they suit their needs well - and are very reluctant to consider alternative solutions. The solution adopted by the Conservative administration has been to set aside an 'entertainment area' while leaving the majority of the stalls unchanged.

Liberal Democrats believe this is a failure of imagination.

A Liberal Democrat administration will revisit the Market Square - to take radical action to transform it into it a place to visit, a place of entertainment, a place to sit and watch the world go by - a lively place during the day and into the evening.

One thing we will not do - we will not put a roof on the square.

3. Consistency

The Tories can hardly claim to have a great record of 'consistency'. Their new leader, David Cameron, is trying to junk as much traditional Conservative policy as he can in a desperate attempt to 'modernise' the Conservatives - to give them a 'caring', 'cuddly' - even 'green' look.

There is a clear mismatch between the rhetoric of Cameron and the actions of local Tories in administration on the Borough and County Council's where they are closing care homes, cutting services to the disabled, elderly and vulnerable and shutting down the youth service.

In contrast, Liberal Democrats have held to their principles. We have been consistent in our approach - in particular, on the two issues Cllr Palethorpe attacks us on:-

· On parking where we have been demanding a charging strategy to promote the economic, cultural and social vitality of the town.

· On the Market Square where we have consistently opposed a roof and been in favour of a flexible solution that allows the square to be used as a market during the day and as an entertainment space during the evening.

Tony Woods

Leader, Liberal Democrat Group

Northampton Borough Council