'Extraordinary' meeting called to debate council car park error
An ‘extraordinary meeting’ has been called this week to debate the ‘clerical error’ which led to Melton Borough Council having to suspend fees in all of its town car parks for three weeks.
The opposition Conservative group has tabled a motion on the issue calling on the Labour/Independent administration to give more information on how the mistake was made and clarify exactly how much money the free parking period cost the authority.
The meeting, which will involve the full council, will be held on Thursday at 6.30pm and is expected to include a frank exchange of views.
Parking fees were restarted on Saturday although issues were reported on social media that some machines were not working and there were also problems with the online parking app.
Car park charges were increased in April but it is understood that the council failed to follow the full protocol in advertising the changes so fees were suspended until that had been addressed.
The council initially estimated that the error cost in the region of £40,000 in loss of revenue but the Conservative motion challenges this and suggests ‘that this mistake will deprive the Council of approximately £50,000 in expected revenue, alongside an additional £7,500 in overhead and associated costs, totalling circa £57,500’.
The motion states: “This error has caused unnecessary confusion for residents and visitors and has significantly undermined public confidence in the Council’s ability to govern and manage key public services effectively.”
It adds: “This financial shortfall places additional pressure on an already stretched budget, necessitating alternative savings or reliance on depleted reserves to mitigate the impact.”
The Conservative group also wants steps to be taken to ensure similar errors are not made in future to safeguard taxpayers’ money.
Council leader, Pip Allnatt, agreed to the extraordinary meeting after initially calling on the Tories to hold the discussion as part of the monthly full council meeting because of his other busy council commitments on Thursday and with some members away on holiday.
In an open letter to the Tory group, which was shared with the media, Councillor Allnatt criticised the Conservative motion as ‘like a very second-rate motion at the student union’.
He said the motion contained ‘Inaccurate numbers, wild and unsubstantiated assertions, asking for things already done or in hand and other things that border on the unconstitutional or at least unnecessary’.
His letter adds: “For my part I will ensure that as much information as possible is available on the 19th and pray that we can have a discussion which provides more light than heat. If that is not possible I believe that the public will know who to blame.”
The borough council and Melton BID is working on a project to evaluate the impact of free parking in the town over the three-week period.
Car parks have often been full, although many drivers who work in Melton have taken the opportunity to leave their vehicles in them all day with some residents saying they were unable to get into town to shop or attend appointments because there were no spaces available.