Council vows to consult more over parking changes
Council bosses have vowed to better consult residents over future parking changes after a review highlighted shortcomings in the authority's prior approach.
Hastings Borough Council met this week to discuss parking proposals made by a cross-party group. Headed by Cllr Andrew Cartwright, the committee made a number of recommendations to the council over how it could better implement future changes to parking.
One of these was to set up parking user group made up of residents and members of the local business community.
This would be consulted on any future alterations to parking policy in Hastings.
In recent years changes to parking charges in particular have caused a huge amount of upset locally, with traders in the Old Town and Central St Leonards complaining that high prices were costing them business.
The parking review also urged councillors to make it more clear where it intended to spend the cash generated from parking charges.
Under an agreement with East Sussex County Council, both local authorities get 50 per cent of any surplus cash - a sum which normally reaches five figures. But, while the county council can veto what the borough council spends the cash on, this does not work both ways.
And Cllr Cartwright said he hoped the borough council at least could make it more clear where the money was going in future.
Councillors agreed with the proposals, voting in favour of them at Monday's cabinet meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, council director Richard Homewood said: "The review certainly highlights shortcoming in our consultation with the public. We have learnt lessons."
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Weather for Hastings
Sunday 05 February 2012
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Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 5 C
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