In Chesterfield, Labour promised reduced parking charges......

.... but this is what you got !

In the Borough Council elections last year, a key plank of the Labour Party's manifesto was that they would reduce car parking charges. They claimed that trade was down in the town because of high parking charges. Well - surprise, surprise !! - This year they have:

• Increased all town centre car parking charges by at least 10p an hour

• Made what was the daily rate for Sunday parking now Sunday's hourly rate!

• Extended daily charges to now apply until 8.00 pm - hitting all theatre goers too.

• Increased differential charges for market traders from £3.50 a day on Albion Road to £9.60 (an almost 200% increase!)

• Made the charge for Ashgate Road car park 60p an hour!

• Increased the multi storey car park tariff from £3.50 to £7.50 (over 100% increase)

The car park income budget for this year is up £136,000, so quite clearly, this has been a long term plan of theirs to raise money. It is not so much the raising of tariffs that we object to; all councils are having a tough time and tough decisions have to be made; it is the arrogance, patronising hypocrisy and total lack of candour demonstrated from promises given to Chesterfield's electorate then conveniently forgotten as soon as they found themselves in office.

They promised to scrap bulky waste charges; they promised to re-invigorate the market but footfall is sadly down could it be the excessive car parking levies?; they promised to sort out the difficult issues of funding for our sports and cultural activities…But bluntly and to the point, what HAVE they done in eighteen months? They have indeed certainly squandered £10,000 on new town signs which were completely unnecessary and they have set up endless reviews (talking shops) within the council to check out where we are. Didn't they know??!!??

Labour's politicians don't seem to be able to grasp the fact that ordinary people don't actually have money trees at the foot of the garden, that the vast majority of folk who need to be able to drive into the town centre to shop surely do so through necessity and not because they are recluse millionaires with a spare £25 grand stuffed down the back of the sofa so as to be able to easily suffer this cash extraction and waste onslaught. We Liberal Democrats may not be perfect but at least we understand basic economics and don't contemptuously view local motorists as wallets on wheels and a source of easy money, easily wasted!

The plain facts quite simply are that ordinary people get a better deal from us than their alternative choices. If you are fed up with Labour's feckless running of the local authority and you are interested in, wanting or motivated to helping build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which together we can seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community and you believe that no-one should be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity; perhaps you should consider joining us. We would love to hear from you. Please drop an email over to our membership secretary with your contact details and we will be in touch.