CHESHIRE West and Chester Council have been accused of looking to ‘introduce a cartel on car parking charges’.

The Places Overview and Scrutiny Committee met in Chester on Monday evening to discuss the council’s draft borough-wide parking strategy.

The report, written by specialist transport and parking consultants Mott MacDonald, recommends that in the next five years the council should designate and enforce short and long-stay parking zones in Northwich, using maximum stay restrictions and charges.

Ian David, a marketing consultant speaking on behalf of Northwich Independent Retailers Association (NIRA), said at the meeting the association are ‘firmly’ against the introduction of parking charges.

He accused the council of putting pressure on owners of private car parks in Northwich.

“Parking provision is very good both in the council domain but also in the private domain,” Mr David said.

“I see there is a suggestion of maintaining a basic service level to do with the car park charges, trying to get the owners of private car parks to basically either not to undercut or offer free charging to the detriment of any charges introduced by the council.

“And I would suggest that this is at best immoral, and very probably illegal.

“I wonder what the Competition Commission would have to say about basically introducing a cartel on car parking charges.”

Cllr Karen Shore, cabinet member for environment, said the revised strategy reflects the ‘huge challenge’ facing the council.

She said: “We have an increase in cars, a growing population which is placing pressure on our infrastructure, and we need a strategy that is fit for purpose going forward into the future.”

Cllr Shore said a ‘one size fits all approach’ may not be appropriate for all locations, which is why the strategy is specifically location based.

Speaking as a visiting councillor, Gaynor Sinar, CWAC ward member for Davenham and Moulton and chairman of the Northwich Business Improvement District (BID), criticised the consultation process.

She said: “I didn’t feel there was any engagement with the retail community.

"We didn’t have any engagement with officers to speak at NIRA.

“The BID did put in their findings from the report but we didn’t have anybody to speak to the board of the Business Improvement District.

“I think that could have perhaps been done better by the consultants.”

Cllr Sinar said there are ‘over-zealous’ parking wardens in the town and criticised poor signage, particularly at the market car park.

She also questioned how the council could form policy based off a consultation that yielded 1468 responses out of more than 332,000 residents, while simultaneously ignoring a petition signed by 7,500 residents in Northwich opposing parking charges.

Judy Parry, from CWAC’s Insight and Intelligence team, said the response was ‘exceptional’.

“Anything over 1000 responses in this area, regardless of the population, is a robust response,” she said.

Cllr Shore added: “I believe we could not have done more to get people to engage with this consultation.

“As mentioned before the response rates were high, they are robust, so I do believe we have a very full picture of people’s views and obviously that will inform recommendations going forward.”

Cllr Charles Fifield, CWAC ward member for Weaver and Cuddington and chairman of the Places Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said he had concerns about the current draft.

He said: “In this report there doesn’t seem to be much about the economic arguments in relation to it.

“That gives me a major headache in terms of what we’re being asked to do with this report when we don’t seem to have any costings or any analysis of what the economic plusses and minuses might be.”

The council approved a recommendation that a detailed, economic impact assessment for the local areas within the borough must be carried out and added to the parking strategy prior to it going to cabinet.