A consultant has been taken on by Rutland County Council to look at how the authority can make an additional quarter of a million pounds in parking charges over the next three years. 

At a recent council meeting, leader Gale Waller (Lib Dem) said the results of the consultant's review would hopefully be known by September. 

In its budget this year the authority wants to raise an additional £60,000 in parking charges and then another £120,000 in the following two financial years.  

The matter has become a bone of contention as in January the authority's scrutiny committee, which was then led by Labour councillor Ramsay Ross, refused to look at the parking charges issue due to workload levels. 

Cabinet member for transport, communities and environment Christine Wise (Lib Dem) had asked the committee to consider suggesting ways of restructuring fees rather than a blanket increase in all of the council's car parks. The authority owns seven car parks across the county and there is currently free parking for 30 minutes and charges thereafter.   

At the latest scrutiny meeting on June 26, Cllr Waller said after scrutiny refusal the authority had employed outside help.  

She said: "That work we thought scrutiny might be interested in doing it. We are now having to employ a consultant as there is not capacity in the RCC team to do it. And we are anticipating that the outcome will be coming to us sometimes in September. But the best laid plans and all that." 

The new chairperson of scrutiny Lucy Stephenson (Con) took issue with Cllr Waller's comments, saying that non-expert scrutiny panel members should not be elevated to replace consultants and the role of councillors was not to do officers work and basic research. She also said there were issues with parking enforcement taking place until 6pm and so some residents were ignoring parking restrictions after that time. 

The leader said the consultants were being paid to look at how the parking charges compare to other local authorities and how different car parks are being used. She said 'on occasion' enforcement officers did operate after 6pm but not more often due to 'budgetary complaints.' 

The scrutiny committee discussed looking at the parking issue and Cllr David Wilby (Con) said the charges were down to the cabinet member to come up with a policy. The committee decided to review the policy and the consultant's report when they were finalised. 

Traders have said they would like more free parking in the town centre to help boost the amount of time shoppers spent in Oakham.