A PARISH council is urging residents to make their feelings known about proposals to start charging residents and visitors to park in currently free areas of Steeton and Eastburn.

As part of proposed changes to pay and display and permit charges, Bradford Council is looking at charging residents £35 per year for residents parking permits; £35 for the first visitor permit, and £40 for any additional others. The cash-strapped authority is also seeking to start charging people to park in the currently free Steeton Top Car Park.

Residents parking around the hospital was introduced by Bradford Council towards the end of 2021 in response to residential roads being used for parking by staff and patients after the hospital brought in a new car park charging structure before the Covid-19 pandemic. The hospital has also recently launched a consultation on its plans to build a multi-storey car park at the site while building of the new hospital takes place.

If the council goes ahead with its proposed changes, Steeton-with-Eastburn Parish Council says it will mean 'there will be no free parking in the Bradford scheme area'.

Parish council chair, Councillor Su Thompson, said the council was urging residents to make their voices heard by registering their objections to Bradford Council before the deadline on Thursday, September 12.

"We want residents to be aware, silence will be read by Bradford Council as agreement with their proposed fund raising policy," said Cllr Thompson.

"The parish council has two key concerns with the introduction of the proposed charges. The proposed charges will be a regressive tax, disproportionately impacting the least well-off in our community. This is shocking at a time when a there is a cost of living crisis, and in areas like Steeton Top, where parking is already scarce, introducing charges for the only real parking available to residents and visitors will simply result in displacement or parking to nearby areas. Such a policy therefore lacks a clear rationale and is ill-conceived and will cause even more problems."

Cllr Thomson added: "Last year, the parish council not only commissioned an extensive parking scheme consultation with local residents and sent the final report with findings to Bradford Council, but we met with the leader of the council to express those concerns.

"Despite all the effort we put in to give a voice to local residents’ concerns, Bradford Council has failed to address the very real and genuine issues raised over the operation of the parking scheme in Steeton and Eastburn.

"Despite all the assurances made when the parking scheme was originally launched that it was a scheme to solve the specific problems caused by Airedale Hospital staff parking in Steeton and Eastburn, the only thing Bradford Council seem to have been able to suggest is to announce plans to introduce a fee-based permit system as part of its budget fund raising proposals. At the same time plans were unveiled to introduce parking charges at Steeton Top Car Park for the first time."

She added: "On the basis that any charging should be strictly to recover the costs of the scheme and not serve as a fundraising mechanism for Bradford Council - how can Bradford justify these increased charging proposals."

Deadline for objections to the proposed order is 12 noon on September 12. Objections can be made in writing either by post to Legal and Democratic Services, Bradford Council, City Hall, Bradford, or by email to Objections@bradford.gov.uk quoting reference: CORP/PCD/JLF/416027.

The Craven Herald has approached  Bradford Council for a comment.