A council leader has defended controversial plans to charge its staff to park when driving to work.
The proposal has been opposed by union UNISON, which called it an “attack on an already demoralised and under-valued workforce”.
However, a letter to the union from council leader Graham Leadbitter said: “I have not sought to hide the fact that the car park charge is a revenue raising measure that is simply designed to reduce the amount of money that we would otherwise have to cut from council services, which is the same reason for the introduction of the garden waste permits for example.
“It is not a decision taken lightly and I fully recognise that some staff in HQ will be impacted by these charges, however, on balance I believe that the combination of this and other income generating budget lines has protected some jobs.”
