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The proposal to charge motorists to use the car parks in the former Congleton Borough has caused much discussion and anguish, so the background as to how we have got where we are needs to be considered and an explanation sought. The Lib Dems ran Congleton Borough through the nineties and up to May 2002, when a minority Conservative administration took over. In its dying days the Lib Dem administration tried to bring in car parking charges to balance their budget.
In the Crewe Chronicle of 14th February 2001, the then Council Leader, Lib Dem Cllr Rod Fletcher was quoted as saying:
".... the possibility of pay and display carparks across the Borough was almost a certainty."
Congleton Borough Conservatives fought this and stopped its implementation.
The new Conservative administration took over a Council that was to be officially branded as "weak" by outside inspection, and so set about massive reform of how the Council operated to make it more efficient, and so remove the need for any car park charge income. The Council had to demonstrate to its auditors that it had properly considered raising revenue from car park charges, which it did and then decided on a "No car park charges" policy
Had the Labour government not forced Congleton Borough into the new Cheshire East Council, that policy would still be in force.
Councillors of ALL parties in the areas of Cheshire East that already have car park charges, insisted that if their people have to pay to park then people in the former Congleton Borough should also have to pay. However Conservative Councillors from the former Congleton Borough have persuaded them that our rural towns are very different from Crewe and Macclesfield; so any consideration of car parking charges in Alsager has been deferred until after the current proposal for a new supermarket is a completed development. Then there will be a calm informed rational debate, which we trust will lead to a permanent no charging policy for Alsager's Fairview car park.
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