PEOPLE affected by Wirral’s controversial country parking charges could be given help in a bid to reverse a decline that’s seen some local businesses lose 20% of their income.

It was revealed last week the council had raised nearly £170,000 from parking fees at green spaces in the first year since being introduced, but at a council meeting on Tuesday, they were described as “detrimental and negative”.

At a meeting of the business overview and scrutiny committee on Tuesday, the council voted through a recommendation to monitor the effect of visitor levels, as well as ask the cabinet to “look at ways support could be given”.

The recommendation came after a discussion on the impacts of the charges at Wirral Country Park and Royden Country Park in Thurstaston, Eastham Country Park and Arrowe Country Park, which were introduced on January 22, 2018 despite much public opposition.

At the meeting, Cllr Chris Blakeley said: “We should be encouraging people to attend our country parks. They not only help people with physical health, they help people with mental health – and yet we continue to put barriers in the way of people attending them. Perhaps in the long run, [the council] wants to build on them – who knows?”

The document discussed by the committee also revealed as well as some business owners in the parks telling the council income is down by as much as 20%, there were concerns such as drivers leaving their cars on pavements to avoid the charges, the volume of visitors to Eastham reducing, and even cases of vandalism.

Cllr Blakeley added: “We can see from the report [the charges] endanger other users and have a negative impact on businesses within the parks. I find it incredible.

“The Conservatives are totally opposed to putting these charges on.”

Cllr Tom Usher said parking charges were “fairly standard ways in which councils produce revenue”.

He said: “I would be interested to look at figures of visitor numbers over the next few years or so, to see whether these figures increase or decrease.

“Then we can have a discussion around how parking charges affect whether people use our country parks or not.”

He also raised the “difficult situation” the council finds itself in, adding: “Country parks do need a certain level of upkeep. We do need to generate revenue in order to maintain the parks so people can use them.”

He suggested offering support to businesses and residents to those affected by the charges, such as money off bills, residents’ parking permits and other “incentives”.

Peter Molyneux, council director of finance and investment, responded by saying the authority had to be “careful” how it “looked at incentivising”, adding: “We must be fair and consistent across all areas.

“There are ways and means of doing things like that.”