Both the SNP and Conservative groups on North Lanarkshire Council attempted to put forward budgets which would not have implemented last month’s decision to bring in town centre parking charges.
The meeting began with an unsucessful bid by SNP finance spokesperson Jim Hume to revisit both that decision and the closure of Kilbowie outdoor centre.
He asserted that last month’s Kilbowie report to the policy and strategy committee “significantly” overstated its running cost and referred only to its 16 full-time employees rather than 29 more sessional and domestic workers.
Although both opposition groups supported reopening discussion of the two controversial issues and their votes amounted to a majority, they did not reach the two-thirds total required to be able to bring back the policies inside the regulation six-month timescale.
Councillor Hume said: “I want to express my disappointment that we’re not being allowed to present our budget that saved Kilbowie and prevented parking charges. Money is available – it’s a matter of choice.
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“There’s £3 million extra from the Scottish Government, and the information isn’t the whole story about Kilbowie – it needs to be re-evaluated by members.
“I don’t understand how North Lanarkshire can have a new town centre strategy which includes parking charges.”
Conservative group leader Meghan Gallacher said car parking will be “disastrous” for North Lanarkshire’s town centres as her group presented a budget which balanced the figures without the policy being introduced.
She said: “We can’t under any circumstances support the Labour budget due to decisions made before today.
“Our hands are tied; we believe the budget makes the best out of a bad situation.”
