Labour leader DAVE MERRETT gives his view on controversial parking charges which have rocked York

THE city council leader, Lib Dem councillor Steve Galloway, has written four articles for the Evening Press in recent weeks about parking charges - a total of 4,363 words. But at no point has he found room for the word "sorry", or for the phrase "we made a mistake".

Having seen the damage these charges are doing to York's business and community life, we are very pleased the Lib Dems are finally considering making significant changes - but we are extremely disappointed that they are continuing to duck responsibility for the decisions they made.

Instead, Coun Galloway has attempted to blame the Government for his predicament - yet he managed to find £1.5 million for new Liberal Democrat initiatives in his budget. The Government's grant to the council actually went up by more than £8 million that year, with one of the best education increases in the country.

It is true, as Coun Galloway points out, that York has a strong track record as an efficient, low-cost authority. This is a record to be proud of, but previous efficiency does not excuse the introduction of ill-thought out, new money-making schemes.

Every business, community group and family in York knows about balancing budgets - it is tough, but it has to be done. You need to think about where to find savings, when it is possible and reasonable to raise extra money - and what the consequences of these decisions will be.

The Lib Dems made decisions on how to balance their budget in February - and it is now widely accepted that they got it wrong. The time has come for them to take responsibility, apologise and find a way to move forward.

The charges were aimed at raising money - but this has come at too high a cost.

More recently Lib Dem councillor Christian Vassie attempted to justify their policies on environmental grounds. They say their policies will discourage the use of cars, but is this true? If people drive to out-of-town cinemas and restaurants, instead of coming into York, where is the benefit to the environment?

If we want to persuade people out of their cars - and there are very good local and global environmental reasons for doing this - we need to offer good public transport alternatives. These alternatives are just not available in the evening for most York residents and until they are the Lib Dems cannot pretend their evening parking polices are part of any coherent environmental approach.

In fact, in the past the Lib Dems attacked both Park&Ride and our partnership work with the main local bus company, which has provided frequent and reliable day-time metro services in many parts of the city.

Earlier this year, the Lib Dems, including Coun Vassie, voted out a Labour budget amendment which would have extended Park&Ride times and improved evening bus services in the face of the Lib Dems' evening charges.

We await the results of the council's current parking review with interest. But we are disappointed it has not been conducted in public.

We want to see the council look at the full range of options, including scrapping evening charges, scrapping the new meters, and returning Respark to its break-even principles. We are tired of hearing the Lib Dems claim there is no alternative to these charges - it is their job as the ruling group to find the alternatives, and we hope that for the sake of this city they will swallow their pride, take responsibility and do just that.

Updated: 10:08 Saturday, August 21, 2004