Hospitality bosses in Liverpool have described scrapping free evening parking as the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for the industry. Liverpool City Council is facing a legal challenge over its decision last year to reduce free parking from between 18:00 and 08:00 to between 23:00 and 07:00, while also increasing fees.Business owners told the BBC that since the change came in they have struggled to recruit lower paid staff and that lone female workers have been left feeling vulnerable leaving their shifts in the early hours. The council said it was satisfied it had acted “lawfully and properly”. The upcoming legal challenge clams the charges must be imposed for “legitimate traffic management purposes”, such as managing traffic flow, rather than primarily to generate money for the council.It will also argue that the council failed to properly to consider the impact on women in the night-time economy. Peter Schriewersmann, from the Liverpool Hospitality Association, said: “The guests that come into the city now have to pay an additional £6 to £8 on top of their meal. “It discourages from coming, it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back for us to be frank.”
Liverpool parking charges ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’
