Car parking charges could be on way at Staffordshire beauty spots

Staffordshire County Council bosses will meet next week to discuss plans for the future of its countryside estates with the possibility of putting car parking charges at sites such as Chasewater.

A report ahead of the meeting on November 14 also confirms that Heath Hayes and Wimblebury Parish Council is in the process of taking over the maintenance and management of Wimblebury Mound picnic area, while the RSPB is preparing to do the same at Consall Nature Park.

The authority is looking to reduce its countryside estates budget by £600,000 by March 2021 and believes working with the public and private sector to manage the estate, which will remain in council ownership, is the best way to reduce costs while maintaining the sites for public use.

A report into the latest development with the Staffordshire County Council countryside estate management scheme states: "A car parking strategy for all appropriate countryside sites will be developed and implemented to ensure that income generating opportunities are maximized.

"For example, introducing car parking charges on the larger sites and increasing the current event charges across all the Country Parks."

Gill Heath, Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for communities, said: “We are retaining ownership of all the country parks, greenways, picnic areas or other green spaces included in this review.

“This review is entirely about how we best manage such a diverse estate in an affordable manner for everyone’s benefit.

“We’ve had some positive conversations with different groups, exchanged ideas about what might work and the suggestion now is that we carry on with more detailed discussions to find the right long-term answers.”

“Depending on their own circumstances, many of the organisations we’ve been in talks with have discussed different ideas with us, such as taking on the management and maintenance of sites in clusters, or perhaps over a period of time rather than all at once, or even using economies of scale with other sites they own to do a good job cost-effectively.

“Whatever the result, we’re determined to find the right long term solution to maintain these public assets as places we can all use and enjoy.”