I THINK it is fair to say that one dominant issue that gives many Bromsgrove residents cause for concern is the demise of our once fine High Street. Whilst I accept this demise is not unique to Bromsgrove it does feel that the actions of the current Conservative run Bromsgrove District Council have accelerated this.

The Council should have an urgent action plan for formulating proposals for revitalising it. One short term measure they could immediately consider is addressing one of the main obstacles to encouraging local residents to use High Street businesses in the evening, namely removing evening car parking charges. In fact it was a Tory councillor who actually introduced a motion on this subject at the November meeting of the Council, which received cross party support and which was passed unanimously.

Previous Labour Group motions on this subject had been rejected.

We now discover that Bromsgrove Cabinet did not even discuss the car parking charges at their December meeting and we are informed by Cabinet member Councillor Mark Bullivant that he has to undertake a review on costings etc before progressing with a decision. This is just nonsensical prevarication on his part. He is the portfolio holder for car parking. Surely he should already know what the costings are, without the need for this pointless review.

This Council has wasted many hundreds of thousands of pounds on the failed redevelopment plans for the Town centre and is currently spending millions of pounds to move from a perfectly fit for purpose Council House to the redeveloped Parkside School, which we now discover will not have sufficient space to house all of their staff when they move there in due course. The amount of revenue that will be lost from evening car parking charges will be in the low thousands.

If Bromsgrove District Council was really serious about saving our High Street the Cabinet would have made an immediate decision on the car parking charges this month rather than adapting unnecessary delaying tactics. They really do not care about the demise of our High Street. Actions speak louder than words.

Bernard McEldowney Lickey End Bromsgrove