City council leader denies 'waging a war on cars'

A council leader has denied "waging a war on cars" after announcing a strategy aimed at discouraging people from driving into central Liverpool.

Speaking on BBC Radio Merseyside, Liam Robinson said Liverpool had more than enough parking spaces in the city centre to meet existing demand and noted that 40% of residents were not car users.

The Labour-run local authority had been accused by an opposition councillor, Carl Cashman, of being "anti-car" over its long-term plan to reduce parking spaces in an effort to improve air quality and ease congestion.

Robinson accused Cashman's Liberal Democrats of "not reading the document" properly before criticising the plan.

The report outlining the council's strategy acknowledged that a reduction in parking spaces would have to be matched by improvements in bus and train services.

The strategy is aimed at cutting the number of vehicles coming into Liverpool city centre

Robinson said: "Looking at what spaces we've currently got available, we know we've got 20,000 in the city centre.

"We know that more than meets demand. We know some of those locations could be better off being developed into other things.

"We've got particularly, around say Tithebarn Street, a lot of surface area car parks that actually that go back to the war in some circumstances.

"Much better if those were developed into different regeneration opportunities."

Cashman had criticised the council for planning to reduce parking in the city centre without an accompanying long-term plan to improve public transport.

"We phase it in," said the Lib Dem councillor.

"We don't just say 'Oh, by the way, we're stopping all cars coming into the city centre'.

"The fundamental issue here is that we are a car-driven city. The city's economy depends on cars coming into the city."

Councillor Carl Cashman accused the Labour-led council of being "anti-car"

But Robinson stressed "it was very much the plan" to phase in the changes over time.

He also denied changes to parking rules in the city centre - including removing free parking after 18:00 - were "killing the night-time economy".

Robinson said they were bringing Liverpool "more in line with what other cities were doing".

He said the council was "actively talking to businesses" about support schemes.

Robinson continued: "If people are coming into town to have a good drink, then we don't want to bring in a car...

"I think the other bit, being very honest again, if people are coming in for things like an expensive meal, we know that paying an appropriate amount for parking isn't going to put people off."