Member of Parliament for Isle of Wight East, Joe Robertson, has called on the Isle of Wight Council to freeze parking fares following Small Business Saturday last weekend (7th December)
The Isle of Wight Council will look to set parking charges as part of the next Budget round, which is due to be decided in February.
Following Joe’s intervention last year, when he was serving as the Chair of the Council’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee, the Council reversed its proposal to increase charges after several years of successive increases. Joe is calling on the Council to do the same for this coming year.
On Saturday, Joe visited some small businesses across the East Wight including the Yarbridge Inn at Brading where heard of the challenges facing small business owners including how the growing cost of parking put people off visiting the high street and instead shopping online or at the big supermarkets.
The call comes following the new Government’s decision to increase employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs), which will make it harder for small and medium-sized businesses to stay afloat.
Joe Robertson MP said:
“Small businesses drive the Island economy, with over 99% of our businesses in East Wight being SMEs employing local people and investing in our communities.
“We should make it easier, not harder, to set up and run small businesses on the Island. The Government’s decision to increase employer NICs will mean fewer jobs and make it harder for small businesses to get by driving up costs.
Article continues below this advertisement “That’s exactly why I am calling on the Isle of Wight Council to play its part by freezing parking fares, helping to make it more affordable for local people to visit our shops and high streets. For too long, parking charges have been seen as an easy way of increasing Council revenue with little regard to the wider cost to our local economy.”
We pay over £2,000.00 a year council tax
£102.00 for our green waste.
Yet we also have to pay a £2 nightly charge when we
park by the beach and walk our Dogs along the Beach.
Also 20p, 40p or 50p to use toilets.
The Council is a joke, they are like Dick Turpin
without the mask.
Taking from the Rich to give to the Poor, an action to be commended perchance ?
MPs dabble in Local Authority matters at their peril. Mr Robertson wold do well to bear that in mind.
Bandwagon Joe is a tad late. IE readers have been saying this for years.
Why go to the Yarbridge? Nobody pays to park their car to go there. The nearest pay and display car park to there is probably the other side of Brading. Just looks like an attempt to grab a local headline, straight out of half a sausage Bob’s playbook. Well done Joe.