Green charity says new parking charges at Coventry’s War Memorial Park would be better than cutting funding for park maintenance.
Fees at the Leamington Road car park, which is currently free, will be proposed in this month’s city council budget report.
And the issue is making waves, with Coventry Conservatives claiming charges at the memorial park would be “an insult to the fallen”.
But GreenSpace, a charity working to improve parks across the country, says reasonably priced parking charges would be better than the park falling into disrepair.
David Tibbetts, who is originally from Kenilworth and is now general manager at GreenSpace, said: “The use of car parking charges has become fairly established in many parks over the last 10 years.
“We would take a pragmatic point of view given the situation many councils are in at the moment.
“And we would support it ahead of closure or loss of skills which means the park’s quality goes down.
“Quality green spaces are what’s important, not just green space. Rubbish green space isn’t valuable to anyone.”
Ruling Labour councillors have stressed they will not be introducing charges at the main Kenilworth Road car park.
And they claim new fees at the smaller Leamington Road car park would be aimed not at park visitors but at commuters who leave their cars and walk into the city centre.
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Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 6:02 pm