LABOUR councillors in Crewe have put a halt to Cheshire East Council’s plans to increase car park charges around Crewe Railway Station.

Cheshire East were set to up the price of parking on two of its car parks near to the station, but Crewe councillors have ‘called in’ the decision, meaning it will be delayed and given further consideration.

The Crewe councillors who put forward the call in say the town would suffer heavily from higher parking charges and say with other towns in the borough such as Middlewich and Sandbach having free parking, the policy is inconsistent.

Cllr David Newton, leader of the labour group, said: “I was one of those who signed the call-in paper. The problem is that we think that the policy of Cheshire East in regards to car parking is inconsistent.

“There are places in Cheshire East where there are no charges at all for parking but then there’s Crewe where the charges are very high. That then keeps shoppers out of the town because they won’t pay that much to park.

“The second point, which is a large part of it, is that where the two charges have been introduced around the station, the claim by the council is that these charges are still lower than other private car parks. But this is simply not true because there are three places around there where you can park for cheaper.

“Because of this we think it requires further analyses.”

The proposal to increase the parking charges will now be scrutinised and a decision is likely to be held only after the election.