Council under fire for scrapping free parking for electric vehicles in Central Milton Keynes

The Labour leadership at Milton Keynes City Council has been criticised for failing on tackling climate change after it has scrapped its free parking incentive for electric vehicles in the city centre.

Free parking for all electric cars was introduced by the then-Conservative administration at MK Council 10 years ago, in 2013.

But now the Labour/Lib Dem administration plans to give a 50% discount instead for the next two years – with the intention of scrapping this discount in 2025.

David Hopkins is leader of the Conservative Group on Milton Keynes City Council and former Chair of the Climate Task and Finish Group. He said today (Wednesday): “The 2013 scheme was the first in a series of UK initiatives designed to give people more reason to buy electric vehicles and was funded using the Government 'Go Ultra Low Cities' funding.

"This initiative set MK out as a pioneer in tackling the climate emergency and was in line with the cross-party drive to improve air quality, create jobs and achieve the city council’s contribution to the goal of every car and van in the UK being zero-emissions by 2050.”

The decision to scrap free parking “represents the Labour-led council’s move away from its commitment to a greener future for MK, said Cllr Hopkins.

He claims it is the latest in a series of decisions seemingly abandoning the council’s commitment to tackling the climate emergency at a local level.

In 2019, the council got cross-party consensus in declaring a climate emergency and vowing to make Milton Keynes a greener place.

Labour’s Cllr Lauren Townsend, Cabinet Member for Public Realm, said today: “10 years ago the Council introduced a 100% employee discount for electric vehicles in order to help boost take up.

“Milton Keynes now has one of the highest figures of electric car ownership in the country so we are doing well.

“However, as electric vehicles become more mainstream it is harder to justify for a number of reasons. We now have over 3000 vehicles that claim the permit and, in general, the discount disproportionately benefits those on higher incomes who are often able to work more flexibly. Also as there are more and more electric cars, it is right that the amount they pay is standardised.”

She added: “Overall, Milton Keynes still offers exceptionally good value whether parking for shopping or for work when compared to other cities. Minimum fees of £1 for two hours in a standard space and £2 for an hour on premium is still cheaper than even less successful shopping towns nearby. We have not put up the tariff for eight years - unlike other places we don’t simply hammer motorists for profit.

“But we do recognise it’s a balance between fairness to those that drive and meeting our ambition to have less congestion and better public transport, so we need to get the balance right, which is why we hope to invest any extra revenue generated by these changes in improving our roads or supporting our struggling bus network as best we can.”

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