The Conservatives have announced that they will stand up for residents living in the City Centre of Brighton & Hove who are facing a 33% parking permit hike from the Greens at the City Budget meeting on Thursday night.

Residents living in Parking Zones Y and Z, which includes the council wards of St Peters & North Laine; Regency; and Brunswick & Adelaide are facing an increase of £45 to their car parking permits in the Greens’ Budget plans.

The Conservatives’ will put forward an amendment to redirect £60,000 of funding from the Sustainable Carbon Redaction Initiative Fund (SCRIF) to spare City Centre residents the increase.

Conservative Finance Spokesperson Joe Miller said that City Centre residents should not be penalised simply because of where they live in the City.

“This is a discriminatory policy from the Greens that will punish residents on the basis of where they live” Cllr Miller said.

Many residents living in the City Centre are on a low income and this will hit them hard.

“It should be noted that the 3 wards impacted by this policy are all represented by Green Councillors.

“Residents in the Green wards in the centre of the city, in St. Peter’s and North Laine for example, should question why they vote Green when they are punished simply for living in the centre of the City” he added.

Conservative Group Leader Steve Bell said that this proposal from the Greens yet another example of an ideological policy that would end up hurting the most vulnerable in the City over anyone else.

“We have seen these ideological policies from the Greens before and the devastating impact they end up having on the disadvantaged in the community” Cllr Bell said.

“The Housing Repairs insourcing policy, introduced because Labour and the Greens didn’t like the idea of housing repairs being undertaken by a private company, has cost Council tenants £10 million so far in their rent contributions, proved impossible to implement and been subject to a protracted industrial dispute.

“The Home to School Transport debacle - again an ideological decision - hit families with disabled children who relied on private taxis to take their children to school.

This car parking hike is yet another ideological and ultimately discriminatory policy.  We will seek to remove this hike on Thursday night.

Conservative Amendment to be presented on Thursday Night:

Redirect the £0.200m recurrent funding to support the Sustainable Carbon Reduction Initiative Fund (SCRIF) and the £0.200m recurrent funding to support the expansion of the Warmer Homes Initiative as set out in the Corporate plan Investment table 2 on page 33 of the agenda, and reallocate as follows: -

• Remove the £0.060m recurrent saving from proposed high demand increase to residents permits as set out.

ENDS.