COUNCIL bosses have ploughed ahead with a controversial hike to parking charges in Bradford’s ‘top of town’, despite a scrutiny committee's call for a rethink.

Today, Bradford Council's Executive said they would be sticking by their plan to extend the times that motorists have to pay for on-street parking across the city centre, to 8am to 6pm six days a week.

At the meeting of the Executive, Ansar Ali, of The Bazaar in Simes Street, said businesses at the top of town were struggling and the changes would “make the situation ten times worse”.

And Les Hall, owner of the Sparrow Bier Cafe in North Parade, said they needed all the help they could get, especially in the wake of the news that Oastler Centre is to be demolished under a new £15m Council regeneration plan.

He said: “The market’s coming down. That will be beneficial for some people. It will be devastating for others."

The meeting heard that earlier in the process, council bosses had already agreed to keep free parking on some 'top of town' streets on Sundays, in response to traders' concerns.

Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe said they had also since announced the £15m regeneration plan, but said that “these things need paying for”.

And portfolio holder for highways, Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, said all other authorities in West Yorkshire charged for on-street parking between 8am and 6pm, so this would bring Bradford in line with them.

Last week, the Council's environment and waste scrutiny committee had examined the matter and opted to send the issue back to the Executive for a rethink.

The councillor who had requested the scrutiny review today responded angrily to the news.

Councillor Simon Cooke, leader of the Conservative group, said: “This is just another example of the Executive failing to listen to scrutiny, which begs the question about why we have it.

“We go to all this trouble to have committees to scrutinise things, to set up a method which means we can have a second look at things, and consistently they just ignore what scrutiny comes back with.”

The scrutiny committee's chairman, Councillor Kevin Warnes, was unavailable for comment but Councillor Martin Love (Green, Shipley), a member the scrutiny committee, expressed disappointment, saying the committee had unanimously decided to send the matter back for a rethink.