Vince Cable

Vincent Cable, MP for Twickenham, claims that residents were misled in the public consultation over Royal Parks parking charges.

It has emerged in correspondence with a local resident that one of the main reasons for the Parks authority proposals is to finance a system of petrol interceptors, traps which filter out pollutants from rainwater runoff, normally used in major industrial sites like bus garages and filling stations where spillage is on a vastly bigger scale than in the Royal Parks.

Commenting Vincent Cable said:

'Mr Rideout's discovery makes a complete mockery of the public consultation. The public was never told what the money from the charges was for and if they had been told they would have said that there were simpler and cheaper ways of addressing the problem, if indeed there is one. The idea is absolutely ridiculous if applied to Bushy Park.

'We are still waiting for the Minister to come forward with firm proposals but there will be a great deal of annoyance if the government and the parks authority press ahead with charges in Bushy Park for which there is only the flimsiest of justifications.'