Country parks and blue badge parking charges introduced – with just over 100 responses to ‘statutory consultation’

Parking charges for blue badge holders in Wrexham town centre and for those visiting country parks will soon be in place.

The new parking charges come as a result of Wrexham Council’s recent budget process, which outlined proposals to introduce the £1 a day fee at Alyn Waters, Nant Mill and Ty Mawr to help generate an additional £47k for the council.

A concessionary annual parking permit of £50which could be used across the three sites, would also be introduced.

Earlier this year it was explained that machines would be put in place at the country parks, allowing users to pay by cash and in addition car park users could use the mobile phone app or phone to pay.

Under the difficult decisions consultation it was also proposed that blue badge holders using council-operated car parks in the town centre would have to pay, rather than receiving free parking.

Blue badge holders would also have an additional hour added to the usual tariff – for example, those paying for a three-hour stay would be able to park for four hours.

It is estimated that introducing parking charges for blue badge holders could generate £25k.

Despite challenge over the proposals from opposition councillors, plans to press ahead and launch a formal consultation process were backed unanimous by executive board members in January 2018 and later by a majority of councillors at Full Council in March.

On social media there had been a number of comments / criticism about both the proposed country park and Blue Badge holders charges, with hundreds of comments posted on Facebook and Twitter when the proposals were first mooted.

However there were just 116 replies made to the formal consultation process, details of which are broken down below:

– 21 showed support for both proposals

– 21 objected to introducing disabled charges

– 53 objected to introducing country parks car park charges

– 21 objected to both proposals.

The consultation process was open to general public with site notices displayed at town centre car parks, Tŷ Pawb, Ruabon Station, Wrexham Technology Park and the country park locations affected by the proposals.

It was also sent to Wrexham Council’s ‘usual statutory bodies; such as BT, Ambulance Service, Coach Association and Private Hire Association; along with disability charities such as disability Wales, Mencap, Mind, Diverse Cymru and locally to AVOW.

Wrexham Council say that no responses were received from either of the bodies listed above.

A ‘statutory notice’ was also published in the ‘local press’ (solely The Wrexham Leader) at the start of March.

Wrexham Council say that concerns raised during the consultation process were ‘varied’ and ranged from the proposals not being affordable for disabled people to the impact they could have on the number of people visiting Wrexham’s country parks.

The accessibility of the ticket machines and a reduction in visitors to the town centre were also referenced.

Details released yesterday by Wrexham Council on the consultation process, state: “In response it is noted that the blue badge scheme is not financially means tested and and we shouldn’t assume that blue badge holders are unable to pay for parking.

“Visitors to both the town centre and country parks will be monitored and the machines will be fully compliant with the Equality Act 2010.”

As a result of the consultation process Wrexham Council will now press ahead with introducing parking charges at country parks, with the exception of blue badge holders – who will be able to park for free at the sites.

The proposed charges for blue badge holders using council-owned car parks in the town centre will be introduced with no amendments.

Cllr David A Bithell, lead member for environment and transport, said: “Introducing charges where previously a facility was free was always going to create disappointment amongst members of the public.

“We have however, kept the charges to a minimum at the country parks and I am pleased that blue badge holders will not have to pay to park when visiting them.

“We will be monitoring the visitor numbers to assess the impact of the charges.”