Council staff park for free!

Next week car parking charges rise, along with the hours chargeable.

Cheshire East residents must therefore be pleased to learn that Crewe council staff park their cars free of charge.

It’s possible that council staff park free in every town – maybe someone out there can tell us?

Should cash-haemorrhaging car park be sold?

Remember, this is the same £11 million car park that made a loss of nearly £70,000 in its first six months of operation.

A Crewe businessman is reported to have witnessed cars leaving at the same time on numerous days and driving straight through on number plate recognition.

“I assume the vast majority of these are Cheshire East employees,” he said.

He added: “Given the fact that only a few cars need to use the next level up and potentially many of these are Cheshire East staff or visitors, what prospect is there of this ever being anything more that an over large Cheshire East car park? Nurses at hospitals have to pay to park at their place of work.”

Now, questions have been raised as to whether council staff actually pay to park there.

The news comes into light after Cheshire East introduced charges for parking in previously free towns – and next week’s hike in charge rates, extension of hours and new Sunday charging.

Chair of the highways and transport committee, Cllr Mark Goldsmith, responded to queries thus: “Currently 200 eligible staff have an access card for parking in Crewe’s multi-storey car park.

“The Crewe bus station and multi-storey car park was built to encourage the regeneration of the town centre.

“I am therefore pleased to see it is starting to have a positive effect with several planning applications recently lodged for new retail and residential developments nearby.”

He added: “Cheshire East Council employs around 3,200 staff, and our staff parking permit scheme has strict criteria, so a large majority don’t have a pass.

“Eligible staff include social workers, ICT and green spaces staff. As an example, these critical staff need to have access to car parks to drop off and pick up case work documents for use in court.”

“Car parking and access is under constant review; there are strict terms of use that include using the permit only on working days and it can be withdrawn if it’s misused.

“Both quarterly and annual contract permits are available to staff and the public with discounted costs compared with a daily parking charge.

“Our aim is that the current arrangement provides a fair and robust permit scheme that is financially sustainable and ensures business continuity.”

So there you go. If you want a very highly paid job for life, with generous benefits, excellent pension and free parking, in a spacious £11 million car park – Cheshire East has to be in the frame.