A date for the return of parking charges in Wirral has been confirmed.
Wirral Council said charges for on-street parking and at council-run car parks, which have been suspended since the start of the pandemic, will return from Monday, February 1.
The authority said fees were not charged for the majority of last year to help local businesses.
But the council needs to find around £16.5m to balance its budget in the next financial year and keeping parking free is estimated to cost between £60,000 and £150,000 per month.
To balance the budget, Wirral Council is considering closing Europa Pools, the Williamson Art Gallery and moving to three-weekly bin collections.
Given the severity of the cuts being considered, most councillors at last week’s policy and resources committee meeting were in favour of parking fees returning.
However, Liberal Democrat members wanted charges to return everywhere apart from country parks, given the importance of exercise for people’s mental health.
Conservative members of the committee thought parking should remain free until at least April as it was not the right time to reintroduce them.
But Labour councillors disagreed, asking the Conservatives to explain which services they would cut to pay for continued free parking across the borough.
With parking charges resuming from next week, machines will be cleaned regularly and drivers are reminded that cashless payments are available.
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Cllr Janette Williamson, leader of Wirral Council, said: “Continuing to suspend the parking charges is unsustainable given our budget and no alternatives to how we would replace that loss of income have been presented by any political party opposing the reintroduction of car parking charges.
The Labour councillor added: “The income the council loses by not charging for parking in its car parks and some on-street locations puts extra pressure on funding for other frontline services.”
