![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_JS235260404-9.jpg\")
The council agreed the measures as part of its work to balance the books – but some have criticised the scheme (Image: Adam Vaughan \/ MEN)<\/p>\nThe charges were agreed as part of the 2024 budget.The council agreed the measures as part of its work to balance the books – but some have criticised the scheme (Image: Adam Vaughan \/ MEN)<\/p>\n
Stockport council has been urged to pause its plans for new charges at some of its free car parks – with councillors calling for an investigation into \u2018procedural failures\u2019 in the roll out of the scheme.<\/p>\n
A list of 25 car parks was drawn up<\/a> where drivers will have to pay the new fees, in a move agreed at the council\u2019s budget meeting in February 2024 which was passed after a vote with all elected members.<\/p>\n Since then, the scheme has appeared before area committees, where councillors have had the chance to share their thoughts on the charges and the chosen car parks before they are introduced.<\/p>\n To see planning applications; traffic and road diversions and layout changes; and more, visit the Public Notices Portal HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n But a group of councillors are now demanding the fees – which have not yet been brought in – be paused until \u2018fundamental\u2019 issues in the scheme are addressed.<\/p>\n It includes claims of the council \u2018withholding\u2019 information<\/a> about why each car park was chosen for \u2018nearly 12 months\u2019 before being revealed, and the ‘very late submission of reports, appendices and supplementary information’ about the work.<\/p>\n During a meeting on September 11, councillors in the central Stockport<\/a> area committee voted to request the delay and investigation.<\/p>\n The work to bring in the new charges at the car parks is being overseen by Coun Grace Baynham, the council\u2019s cabinet member for transport.<\/p>\n Coun Christine Carrigan, leader of the opposition Labour<\/a> group, said the Lib Dem administration ‘likes to talk about collaboration and working constructively, transparency – it’s lip service, I’ve had enough.’<\/p>\n When the move was agreed in 2024\u2019s budget, it was expected to save the council nearly \u00a3300,000 in a parking review.<\/p>\n But some councillors said they have been left feeling \u2018miffed\u2019 with how the scheme has progressed since then.<\/p>\n Coun Matt Wynne was another member who raised concerns during the meeting on September 11.<\/p>\n He said councillors in Edgeley had put forward ideas for which car parks could be used in the scheme – but claimed another site was chosen instead, and that he only found out about this through a council report rather than communication.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s it all about?\u201d he asked. \u201cI appreciate it\u2019s a cabinet member’s prerogative and they can drive through these decisions, but it\u2019s insulting.<\/p>\n \u201cAre we incapable of picking up a telephone now, or typing a quick email?<\/p>\n \u201cI think to say it\u2019s underhand is a strong word, because it\u2019s the cabinet member\u2019s prerogative, but it\u2019s disrespectful really to us as local decision makers and the people we represent, and also the time we took out to get that support and work with the cabinet member to find a way through this, it\u2019s disregard really.\u201d<\/p>\n Join our Stockport WhatsApp group HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n In June, a council officer said it is expected that the new charges will be rolled out before the end of the year.<\/p>\n A council report in January showed the proposed new charges starting at 50p for an hour rising to \u00a32.40 for ten hours.<\/p>\n Permits could be brought in alongside the charges for eligible residents living near one of the car parks.<\/p>\n Coun Baynham defended the charges during a previous council meeting in July, when asked about releasing information on why each car park was chosen.<\/p>\n She said at the time: \u201cThis is an ongoing piece of work, we\u2019ve been working on this spreadsheet since the start of the process, it has been requested and we\u2019ve provided it.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking at the wider picture, Stockport council<\/a>\u2019s finances are under major pressure, with the town hall warning this week that \u2018difficult decisions\u2019 need to be made<\/a> in its future budget proposals to balance the books.<\/p>\n A report revealed that the council has to find savings of \u00a363m up to 2029\/30.<\/p>\n Last year, it had to make \u00a326m of savings, which led to a 4.99 per cent council tax increase and the introduction of a \u00a359 yearly charge for those who want to continue garden waste collections in their green bins.<\/p>\n Blue bin collections for paper recycling were also changed from fortnightly to monthly as part of the cost-cutting measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The charges were agreed as part of the 2024 budget.The council agreed the measures as part of its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,1288,2622,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-424089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-stockport","13":"tag-stockport-council","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115203570855615493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Accusations](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_JS344793208-1.jpg\")
Accusations of ‘procedural failures’ were made during the town-hall meeting of councillors in central Stockport.<\/p>\n