At a Special Council meeting last night, Thursday 17th February, Tandridge District Council unanimously agreed a motion to oppose the proposals by Surrey County Council to introduce parking charges on the district's roads.

The following motion was moved by Councillor Gordon Keymer and seconded by Councillor Chris Botten.

"The Council is strongly opposed to the proposals by Surrey County Council to introduce parking charges on the district's roads on the following grounds:

The complete failure of Surrey County Council to hold any consultations with this council or local residents prior to announcing its proposals, even though the proposals are directly contrary to the economic policies of this council and will damage local shops and businesses.

The announcement of the proposals to the local press before they were notified to this council.

The very serious adverse effect that the proposals would have on the economic health of local shops and businesses, particularly at this time of great economic difficulty, as was clearly stated by this council in its response in November 2010 to Surrey County Council's Surrey Transport Plan Draft Parking Strategy.

The failure to make available adequate free of charge parking for shoppers in the proposals in direct contravention of the policies of this council for the economic support of local shops and businesses.

The very serious effect that the proposals will have on this council's town centre car parks in which free parking is provided for shoppers in line with this council's economic support for local shops and businesses.

Since the new arrangements with the East Surrey Districts/Boroughs will mean that parking enforcement will no longer cost Surrey County Council anything, the proposed on street parking charges are effectively a tax by Surrey County Council on local shoppers to the detriment of the local economy." Tandridge District Council Chief Executive, Stephen Weigel, has been asked to contact Surrey County Council's Chief Executive to let him have details of the motion and make him aware of the District Council's concern about the damage these proposals and the way they are being handled by Surrey County Council is doing to relations between Surrey County Council and this council, local businesses and residents.