The council was accused of subsiding drivers with a proposal to freeze parking charges and resident permit prices.
The claim was made by former Green local election candidate Mark Strong who now sits as a co-opted member of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Mr Strong told the committee on Friday (7 February) that it was a subsidy for high-income groups and, by extension, a tax on everyone else.
But Labour cabinet member Trevor Muten said that it was unhelpful to characterise drivers as wealthy, not least given the number of key workers who relied on a car for work.
The exchanges took place as the committee debated the Labour-led council’s budget proposals for the 2025-26 financial year which starts in April.
Labour councillor John Hewitt asked why the council was making less money from parking even though charges had gone up.
The budget report said: “Parking charges are being frozen partly because traffic in the city has reduced since the pandemic – a key objective of sustainable transport policies.”
It was also “partly to balance the impact on the visitor and business economies and partly because other alternatives for disincentivising car use in the urban area, including park and ride, are being developed”.
Mr Strong, who represents the community and voluntary sector, said that various groups were concerned that freezing parking charges was a “tax on everyone”, particularly the majority who do not travel by car.
He said: “What you’re doing is providing a subsidy for high-income groups in Brighton and visitors to Brighton at the expense of low-paid people in Brighton.
“The lowest 10 per cent of people don’t have access to cars. Car ownership only becomes higher in the upper rangers of income.
And freezing parking charges to “stimulate demand” went against policies in the council’s local transport plan to reduce car use, he added.
Councillor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport and parking, said that over the past five years parking charges had gone up by 50 per cent.
From 2018 to 2021, parking charges rose by 2 per cent a year. They went up 10 per cent in 2021-22 and by 15 per cent in 2022-23 and a further 15 per cent in 2023-24. The increase last year was 6 per cent.
Councillor Muten said that Labour scrapped the quadrupling of on-street parking charges in four parking zones two months after taking over the council in 2023.
The big increases covered four parking zones including the area around Royal Sussex County Hospital, affecting patients and staff.
He said: “To suggest that people with cars are exclusively people who have got wealth is not quite true.
“I really think that’s an unhelpful characterisation because there are people who are key workers in our city.”
The committee was told that parking charges helped to fund unprofitable bus routes but the above-inflation price rises were not bringing in the income needed, with a significant drop in the number of drivers parking in the centre of Brighton.
Councillor Muten added: “Price hikes previously have not been helpful for many other aspects of the city. I do include that in terms of social inequality in our city.
“It’s prohibitive for those people on lower incomes to come and drive around the city so they can get to their jobs – those key workers on lower incomes.”
Some 500 parking spaces had been removed, notably prime spaces on the seafront such as those in Madeira Drive, costing the council £1.2 million a year, he said.
The Labour deputy leader of the council, Jacob Taylor, said that the Green party position was astronomical increases in parking charges.
He said that residents in Moulsecoomb and Bevendean often tended to be slightly older and used cars to get into town for shopping and hospital appointments.
Councillor Taylor said: “What’s being said is that you must use parking as a blunt instrument to stop people using their cars and coming into the city and do it in a flat regressive way and put people off from coming it.
“It has a huge impact on people in outlying areas. Of course we would like them to get a bus or cycle in. When they do drive, it’s a flat tax on them – a flawed strategy in pure financial terms. We keep losing income.”
Brighton and Hove Independent councillor Mark Earthey suggested an “increase by stealth” by adjusting parking rates by different times of day.
Green councillor Sue Shanks said that the council could bring in more controlled parking schemes if it wanted to generate revenue.
Councillor Shanks said: “There are several areas in the city which don’t have parking schemes and are very congested in terms of parking. We don’t agree with freezing parking fees at all.”
Consultation on a controlled parking zone is currently under way in Hollingdean. The Nevill area of Hove is high up the council’s priority list for a similar consultation. People in Portslade and Rottingdean have also asked for parking permit schemes.
Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons said that his group welcomed the parking charge freeze and would like charges to be reduced.
The papers before the committee at Hove Town Hall on Friday said that the council would have to find savings totalling £16 million in the coming financial year.
The council is proposing another 4.99 per cent increase in council tax, with about 40 per cent of the rise to be ringfenced for adult social care.
The budget is due to be set at a meeting of the full council at Hove Town Hall on Thursday 27 February, starting at 4.30pm. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
To read a thread of live Bluesky posts from the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on skywriter.blue, click here.
“The council is proposing another 4.99 per cent increase in council tax, with about 40 per cent of the rise to be ringfenced for adult social care”
Incorrect.
The social care premium is 2.99% so would be 60% of the total 4.99% increase.
Its always been said in the past that parking charges do not create net income for the council. Those lies have been exposed by this article. As for lower income groups not having vehicles that is rubish. Ive always had a vehicle. Even when I have earnt less in a year than a normal job on minimum wage. Im self employed and my job does not rely on driving. I walk to work. Parking charges are and always have been a source of income for the council.
Don’t agree with Mark here. I find his logic here flawed. I find Mark Strong’s assertion that freezing parking charges subsidises high-income groups at the expense of others to be overly simplistic.
This perspective fails to consider that many key workers, who are essential to our community, rely on cars due to the nature of their jobs and the limitations of public transport, I am one of them.
Others have commented that significant increases in parking fees have previously led to decreased city centre visits, adversely affecting local businesses and the broader economy.
I think Mark’s assertion was based on the fact that the more money people have, the more likely they are to own cars so more likely to make car journeys and require parking spaces. Hence, they are more likely to financially benefit more from frozen parking charges than people on low or zero incomes, including key workers.
Surplus income from parking revenue can be used to improve other modes of transport, such as buses. By reducing parking income growth by freezing charges, reduces the money available to improve bus services. So this, again, is more likely to impact people with less money – including key workers.
Imo it’s a no brainer for the council (and government) to be investing in public transport. Their fixation on subsidising car travel on our small crowded island is very short sighted.
One of their many policies which seeks to attract the populist vote – it’s all about headlines for them in the short term, rather than what’s actually better overall and forward thinking.
I think Mark’s assertion was based on fiction and fantasy tbh.
He’s living in a dream world if he really believes only those with greater incomes are likely to own cars. Facts are, Covid destroyed much of the transport network with very limited bus services running, despite key workers still needing to perform their duties. People were discouraged from using buses when lockdown restrictions started to be lifted and not all bus services have returned to their original timetables. Many people had no choice but obtain their own means of transport some of those are key workers who like the rest of us are financially struggling.
Labour councillor John Hewitt asked why the council was making less money from parking even though charges had gone up.
Because the previous Adminstration
1) removed several hundred parking bays across the city.
2) increased prices beyond what people wanted to pay.
In some areas of the city, it is cheaper to take a fine then pay for parking. Oxford has a similar issue.
Max says reducing parking income growth reduces the money available to improve bus services. But that’s exactly what’s happened as a result of charges being ramped up year after year. He ignores the ‘price elasticity’ which has been tested to the extreme by this greedy Council. Now, my family order online so they don’t get mugged by extortionate parking charges or ripoff bus fares. When we shop in person, we aim for places like Holmbush where parking is free, or we go to Bluewater.
I used to do a lot of work within the city with lots of businesses doing various teaching requiring a lot of different teaching aides/books etc meaning I need to use a vehicle. With all the problems getting into the town due to poor traffic management and costs of parking I no longer take on work in the city and earn more driving to Burgess Hill/Worthing etc as I can keep my prices low.
Want to save money?
Cancel VG3 – save £7m.
Clear out the clueless and profligate sustainable transport ideologues in the Transport Department.
Stop pandering to the nutters in the cycling lobby
Seconded.
Bit late now as works have already started!
Now it’s underway, are you going to continue your identical comment?
Agreed .
Failed Green candidate Mark Strong who says he ‘represents’ the voluntary sector but is far more keen on pushing his pro bike / anti car agenda which is neither helpful or realistic. Mark forgets many of us do not live in central Kemptown but right on the edges of town, or perhaps we need a car for work, or are elderly or disabled? Not rising car parking prices is NOT subsidising drivers – in fact parking fees in Brighton are the highest in the country outside of London and drivers are subsidising free bus passes and various transport infrastructure schemes with the tens of millions they currently pay into the council coffers.
Mark and Max are like Green versions of Trump with their infantile approach, ignoring empirical evidence and pretending to speak up for the poor while putting forward policies which only really help the well-off. Have they learned nothing from the Green wipe-out almost 2 years ago? People are fed up with their silly nonsense.
Mr Strong claims that parking charges don’t affect the poorest. Wrong! Yes, they may not have cars, but they still end up paying for this tax (and tax it is as parking makes around £20m a year above costs in Brighton which subsidises transport budget costs)
Why do people without cars pay for parking? They have to directly in resident areas when they pay for guest parking permits for trades. Possibly for visitors too, depending if they feel the need to pay to help them visit. Indirectly everyone pays – extra costs for local businesses and people working for it, trader permits for businesses. All of these costs get added to everyday items – particularly local shops and businesses (just the type of local shops the greens encourage us to use).
A fairer and less regressive tax would be to put these costs on council tax. But parking tax is seen as for “the rich” but it doesn’t take long to realise that this hurts key workers, tradespeople with vans (who also have to pay more as “high” emission) and other groups who are not highly paid (but who have to drive for their jobs).
It’s a pity that resident passes haven’t decreased in price (as some off-street parking has). They are far above many cities and the council is using them as a revenue stream. As the controlled zones move ever outward they are reaching our more deprived areas where average incomes are far below many areas. Hollingdean is next on this list and are voting again currently. They turned down A CPZ when presented with prices last time (after voting yes to needing a CPZ). Unbelievably, the council are offering the same high prices again, not a light touch scheme as a local councillor said would be the answer in the press.
I’m not sure people did actually vote for a scheme, when we received a letter to voice our opinion choice there was only two questions, would we want a light touch scheme or a full scheme, no where did it ask if we wanted a scheme.
I’d query why, and how, non-elected failed Green Party candidate, and pro-cycling anti-motorist activist, Mark Strong ever got co-opted onto the committee?
He’s wealthy enough for to have to work a real job otherwise he would realise he probably needed to commute in a car lol
Want to save money stop the public servants gold plated pensions which rise every year.
I think you’ve droned on about this before. How you can possibly think attacking already poor pensions in this country is the answer and a priority is beyond me. Maybe attack the real issue which is a lack of public sector money due to private greed? Look towards the super rich for example
What an absurd, reductionist, borderline dumb comment. These are the decision makers smh.
The amount of money Brighton and Hove makes on parking is obscene. High parking charges inhibit visitor numbers, businesses and growth. The council should not be freezing these charges. They should be reducing them to the level where they are a break even service. That would be about a £20 million pound reduction for Brighton and Hove.
Agreed .Well said.
I’m a pensioner who spends a sizeable amount of my pension to fund a car and remain independent. We live in Peacehaven having moved from Preston Circus. Brighton is now a city only for students and cyclists. We rarely come back to Brighton now due to the mucked up road system and the horrendous parking charges. We prefer to shop in Eastbourne which is also cleaner and has less graffiti . Not surprised parking income is down – so is Brighton!
To be fair, there’s nothing you could really need in Brighton that you can’t get in Peacehaven.
As a self-employed tradesman this city has got impossible to work in. I live here but will take jobs outside of town as first choice. Traffic has become gridlocked by extreme council policies of reducing capacity. And the parking is over priced. I charge a higher rate now for Brighton addresses, and add the parking costs to the bill. This council has directly caused prices to go up for their own residents.
And don’t be ill. The cost of visiting the hospital and related parking is insane. Especially made tough as you need to use parking bays that are not long enough for the time you then get stuck in A&E.
I used to enjoy shopping in the North Laines. Not visited in years now due to the parking. And I know many friends who will visit any town but Brighton due to how famous our parking charges are. A tourist town that has made parking so expensive it is cheaper to take the kids to Worthing or Eastbourne.
Selfish councillors like Strong seem to have lost touch with normal people.
Strong isn’t a councillor
You claim parking off your tax bill, so you don’t really pay for it at all, Bob.
I don’t think you know how businesses work.
Any expenses and costs means they are not taxed, not that you get the money back.
So you are still paying full rate, therefore eats into any profits and therefore means increasing prices. Increasing prices means charging you more.
I don’t cover Brighton anymore due to traffic management and costs of parking. Brighton I’m doing only three appointments but when I go to Worthing or Burgess Hill I’m doing five in the same time period and even with travelling my costs have reduced because I can now work four days a week if I choose too instead of six I had to do.
Also to note, fuel prices are slightly cheaper outside the city and any shopping I do while out so the local economy benefits while Brighton’s suffers.
Benjamin, I may be able to claim the parking as an expense against tax, but as Buster explains, it still gets paid. It also means the government end up with less tax. So back to everyone loosing due to council greed.
It is the time and hassle of dealing with it that costs more. When I could put a few coins in a machine it was easy. Most of the time I now pass that cost direct to the client by asking for a parking voucher. Which they pay for. A cost caused by the council.
It is just too much hassle to work in this City in which I have lived since the 1980s. So I directly overcharge people due to that hassle. I have a special “Brighton Rate” for people in the parking zones.
Yes, ChrisC, I made a typo. Strong isn’t a councillor but for some weird reason he thinks people should listen to him and he has managed to get his oar into decisions that affect people.
As to “Some Guy’s” idea below of discounts for people with liveried trade names on their vehicles. That would not help as I can’t afford a work van as I’d have no where to park it at home thanks to council complexities…
You’re right, Bob, my comment wasn’t accurate. The cost is deducted from your taxable profit, so you get some tax relief — about 20% if that’s your tax rate.
Not sure you quite understand Ben.
Lets keep it simple, the more costs rise, the less on taxable profit there will be if prices aren’t increased to match. Increasing prices means more coming out of your pocket to the benefit of the council only.
Then the freeze in parking fees should be a boon to your business, right?
But Brighton and Hove parking charges are already among the highest in Britain. How dare the car haters keep penalising people trying to earn a living, get their kids to increasingly far away schools on time or take their elderly mother out for the day. And even, God forbid, let visitors spend their hard-earned cash in our city! I will never offer a car hater a lift again. Let them paddle their own bicycle.
I really do think that the greens need to put up or shut up, after the dreadful mess they left this city in with their hair brained ideas.
Why don’t we just target the charges a bit better? Have a system where key workers and/or low income workers can apply for a zero cost pass with suitable evidence? Same as blue badges. You might even consider a scheme for liveried trade vehicles, taxis, etc. (I assume emergency service vehicles are already exempt from such concerns). Then you can whack the price of parking up to whatever the market will bear for everyone else.
Then you can whack the price of parking up to whatever the market will bear for everyone else.
Think you will find for some us it’s already reached over and above what the market will stand.
I no longer take on work in Brighton and go to anywhere outside the City and also shop outside the city so BHCC miss out on my parking fees and what I spend in shops etc so less for the local economy.
This city thrives on it’s tourists and visitor’s and already there’s signs the city is suffering in that sector as various reports inform us.
Mark Strong is a long time pro cycling, anti car activist.
Nothing wrong with that. Has clearly defined values. Doesn’t mean you have to agree with him.
No nothing wrong with that Benjamin but his role on the committee is to represent the ‘voluntary sector’, (which local taxpayers money funds), why he feels it is his place in that role to bash car parking charges is more aligned as vintagefan has pointed out to his personal crusade and NOT the community he is supposed to be representing.
I see where you’re coming from. I don’t see him as a representation of the voluntary sector. His contributions to transport policy are consistent with his expertise as a travel consultant, rather than evidence of a personal crusade interfering with committee work. Unless he was explicitly appointed to speak for the voluntary sector (he absolutely wasn’t and doesn’t), there’s no contradiction in him discussing parking charges.