Rother council leaders cancel plan for fees at free-to-use car parks

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Rother council leaders have cancelled plans to introduce new fees to free-to-use car parks.

On Monday (February 3), Rother District Council’s cabinet endorsed proposals for the authority’s 2025/26 budget, which will be put to a full council vote later this month.

These proposals, which include a 2.99 per cent council tax increase, were discussed by the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee.

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While the scrutiny committee was supportive of the overall budget proposals, they also recommended the council abandon proposals to introduce parking fees to car parks which are currently free to use.

Speaking during the cabinet meeting, the scrutiny committee’s chairman Paul Osborne (Con) said: “There was so much negative comment from residents, especially in Northiam and Sidley … [compared to] the potential tiny amount of income.

“We thought the negative publicity and the harm to the reputation of the council wasn’t worth the aggravation.”

The free-to-use car parks which had been set to be affected included: Beeching Close; Sidley; The Gorses; Richmond Road; Broad Oak Park; Little Common Rec; The Polegrove/Rye Salts; Northiam; Sedlescombe; and Hurst Green.

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Charges were also set to be introduced at Bexhill Leisure Centre, as well as at the coach and lorry parking in Wainwright Road and the coach parking in Battle.

Cllr Christine Bayliss, cabinet member for regeneration and economic development, put forward a motion for the charges be dropped from the wider budget proposals.

Cllr Bayliss said: “I think we’ve listened to the consultation, we’ve listened to the public. As the economic development lead on the cabinet, I have been lobbied by businesses in places like Sidley, for example, and you can see that this would be, at this stage, a backward step.”

However, Liberal Democrat cabinet member Kathryn Field said: “I think there are equalities issues here. I think we should be charging for all of them or not charging for any of them; I don’t think we should be cherry picking between car parks in the district.”

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The motion was agreed by a majority vote. The overall proposals will soon go to a full council vote for adoption.

The remaining budget proposals include a 2.99 per cent council tax increase. If implemented, this would bring Rother‘s share of the annual bill for a Band D household to £210.65 — an increase of £6.11 on the current financial year.

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