Meeting documents

Federation of Bath Residents' Associations.

Proposed Increases in Residents' Car Parking Charges in Bath.

I am here tonight representing the Federation of Bath Residents' Associations, which you may know has over 4000 members. We wish to object strongly to the proposed increase in Residents' Car Parking charges. When these schemes were first introduced we were told that it was on the basis that the Council would not regard them as profit making schemes, and that they would be self financing. In our view, the proposed charges are excessive for all the areas proposed.

In zones 1-12, permits will rise from £90 for the first car, to £130 for the second. This reflects an increase of 63% for the first car and 58% for the second over the present charges. Similar increases apply to zone 1. It is the unanimous view of the Federation that any increase should be based either on the increase in the cost of living, or on the proposed percentage increase in Council Tax for the coming year.

We also wish to comment on the increase in costs of visitor permits. The increase in the proposed cost of visitor permits from 20p to £1 is equivalent to an increase of 500%, and again we consider that any proposed increase should reflect the change in the cost of living or the annual increase in Council Tax.

In addition, we consider that the proposal to reduce the current visitor allocation for those over 60 from 200 to 100 a year is unacceptable. If the government can allow those over 60 special considerations, such as free prescriptions, free bus passes and winter fuel allowances, then we do not consider that the present allocation of 200 passes can contravene any equality legislation.

Moreover, the present allocation reflects two important factors for the elderly:

Many of the elderly receive day -time visits from social service helpers, nurses etc, all of whom require visitor permits to carry out their work. Your system will penalise those who require this type of support and help...

Secondly, most elderly residents encourage their visitors to arrive in the day time, since they are loath to answer their doors a night, particularly in the winter. Moreover, their visitors do not use the tickets as a cheap way to visit the city centre; most of them would be unable to make the journey on foot. Many of the elderly have regular meetings in their homes for interests such as bridge, quilting or language lessons, and they would be heavily penalised if they had to pay to their visitors.

We also consider that the Central Zone residents should be eligible for visitors' passes.

Alun Morgan

Secretary.