Parking charges are coming to help pay for the transformation of green space into a country park in Woodley.
But a former mayor of the town has slammed the charge as “diabolical”.
Ashenbury Park is a public greenspace which is accessed from Tippings Lane at the eastern edge of Woodley. It has a car park with approximately 45 spaces, which is currently free to use.
But that could soon change, as Wokingham borough council is introducing a £2.50 all-day parking charge to pay for recent improvements, including work to the pathways.
Councillors were briefed on the new charges by Andy Glencoss, head of environmental services at Wokingham borough council, and Mark Ashwell (Liberal Democrats, Evendons) at a meeting of Woodley town council’s planning and community committee on July 21.
Mr Glencross said: “We’re not introducing the full level of country park car parking charges because we acknowledge that the park itself is not yet at the standard of our other country parks.
“It doesn’t have a cafe, it doesn’t have a toilet block or any of those kinds of facilities that the others do.
“We are introducing a small charge, that money will be used to fund that £200,000 investment in the footpaths and the other improvements to the site.”
Mr Glencross then explained Ashenbury Park will be managed by the in-house Wokingham Countryside team, ahead of more improvements aimed at turning it into a fully fledged country park in the future.
He said: “I appreciate not everyone likes car parking charges, but I think we can say here that we’re not just taking the income and benefiting from that, we’re actually providing quite a lot of investment to a local facility.”
Cllr Ashwell, the borough council’s executive member for leisure and countryside, added: “Without the car parking charges coming in to actually pay for these improvements that we put in up front, we wouldn’t have been able to do it [the footpath improvements].”
David Bragg (Conservative, Coronation Central), the former mayor of Woodley, was heavily critical of the change.
He said: “As has been said, there’s nothing at Ashenbury Park at the moment other than the pathway you’ve just built to attract people in.
“When you get the country club up, a restaurant, cafe, toilet blocks, maybe there it’s something else where the family can go for the whole day.
“But to charge £2.50 there for people to go and have a leisurely walk around the park taking their dog for a walk is diabolical.”
Mr Glencross added that there will be a 15-minute ‘grace period’ for drop-offs and pick-ups.
The Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) which is used to introduce the parking charges was expected to be published this week. Once that is done, a 21-day statutory consultation into the order will take place, enabling members of the public to object.
The relevant executive member at Wokingham borough council will then make a final decision on whether to implement the TRO.
