Rebecca Connop Price reports

PAY and display parking charges will not be introduced in a Farnborough car park following a campaign by two ward councillors to stamp them out.
The free Salisbury Road car park is used by residents visiting, among other things, a dentist’s, chemist’s and doctor’s office.
Last year, Rushmoor Borough Council’s cabinet decided to bring in charges to stop people from parking there all day. They planned to introduce the charges in April.
It was thought the charges would also make it easier for parking wardens to monitor the site.
But Empress ward councillors David Clifford and Brian Parker launched a campaign to keep the car park free.
They were spurred on by residents who told them that they didn’t want to pay for parking there. Coun Clifford said residents were calling the charges a “tax on the sick” and “appalling”.
But the Conservative councillors met resistance from cabinet members, including Coun Roland Dibbs, who said the parking charges were necessary to prevent abuse of the car park. It sparked a row between the Tory colleagues, who couldn’t see eye to eye.
It was finally decided that the council would conduct a survey to find out if car park users were over-staying the two-hour limit.  A survey was completed and it showed that most people were using the car park to visit the clinicians.
At a meeting last Wednesday, attended by Rushmoor’s parking manager Mike Bamber, director of community and environmental services John Edwards, highways engineer John Trussler, and the two ward councillors, it was decided to scrap the plans for pay and display.
Coun Clifford said he was delighted with the result. He said: “Sometimes we have to stand up to the people who are normally our allies and colleagues.
“Our first loyalty has to be with residents.”
A petition calling for the plans to be scrapped was signed by 440 people, and Coun Clifford was able to present it to council officers.
Coun Clifford said: “I’m delighted that they listened, I’m just disappointed that we had to go through all this.”