Rebecca Connop Price reports

THE battle to prevent parking charges from being introduced at a Farnborough car park has started a row between Conservative councillors. 
Empress councillors David Clifford and Brian Parker have been embroiled in a stand-off against Tory cabinet members who want to press ahead with plans to introduce pay and display parking at the Salisbury Road car park.
Coun David Clifford, who described the move as extremely unpopular, said he would not be pressurised into giving in to the plan.
A private meeting – which is likely to take place later this month – will decide the outcome.
But the issue has already been raised at a recent heated meeting and Coun Clifford said the disagreement has already wasted Rushmoor Borough Council officer time. 
Coun Clifford said: “I am livid about this. What value are ward councillors if they’re completely and utterly ignored?
“We are the people who are responsible for our ward, we should have a say in this.”
The plan to put in parking machines was agreed by Rushmoor’s cabinet last year.
But Coun Clifford said the first he heard about the plan was when his fellow ward member Coun Parker noticed a sign on a lamppost.  
After speaking with the area’s beat officers, residents, and staff at the chemist’s, doctor’s and dentist’s which rely on the car park, Coun Clifford concluded that charging for parking there would be unacceptable.
A meeting was scheduled between Rushmoor’s parking manager Mike Bamber, director of community and environmental services John Edwards, Tory cabinet member Coun Roland Dibbs, and the two ward councillors.
Coun Clifford said when it was clear that neither side would budge, Rushmoor officers suggested doing a survey to find out the make-up of the car park’s users.
A survey has now been done and it shows that most people use the car park to visit the doctor’s, dentist’s or chemist’s there (74 per cent), and most park for less than an hour.
But Coun Dibbs insisted that people did abuse the car park.
The car park is for short-stay only, and Coun Dibbs said people were parking there all day. “It’s convenient parking for local shops and you’ve got the town centre being developed soon and development means more people needing to park.
“A decision was taken last year to control it by pay and display.”
He rejected Coun Clifford’s assertion that the ward councillors were being ignored, but added: “If every cabinet decision was made and ward councillors could pop up and say ‘we don’t like this’ then you’d never get any work done.”
He said it would be different if the councillors had valid reasons for objecting. “The only reason they’ve put forward is they don’t like it,” he said.
Coun Clifford said: “They’ve picked the wrong councillor, I’m not having it.
“There’s only one person that’s going to benefit from this – Rushmoor Borough Council’s parking revenue department.”