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Saturday, August 27, 2011
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Fourth arrest in tendering probe POLICE investigating allegations of corrupt tendering practices at Stokeon-Trent City Council have arrested a fourth man. A 49-year-old Staffordshire man was arrested yesterday as part of the police’s ongoing inquiry. He was bailed pending further inquiries until later October. Three men are already on police bail and six council officers are suspended as part of the investigation. A police spokesman said: “A 49-year-old man has been arrested and bailed, pending further inquiries, as part of the ongoing police investigation into corrupt tendering practices at Stokeon-Trent City Council.”
Authority set to lose £384,000 as drivers use free parking rather than the council’s own car parks BY ALEX CAMPBELL alex.campbell@thesentinel.co.uk
MOTORISTS are shunning city centre council-run car parks in favour of free parking to leave a cash-strapped council hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket. Stoke-on-Trent City Council took £813,106 from parking charges between April and June this year, almost £150,000 less than the same period in 2010. Now finance officers are warning the council faces making £384,000 less than it expected for 2011/12. In March this year officials said the loss of income was equivalent to £20,000 a year. The council today blamed the deficit on free parking elsewhere in Hanley, including at the new Tesco store. It comes as the council has been criticised for closing John Street car park, which made £30,000-a-month, three months before any visible work started on the site of Hanley’s new bus station. And money raised from the re-introduction of Sunday parking charges in April has been “lower than expected”. Shopper Alan
CLOSED: John Street car park. Joinson, of Bentilee, said: “If I go to Hanley I do not pay for parking. I park near Northwood Park. “If the council charged a reasonable price, like 50p, then people would be more inclined to park there.” Tesco, which opened last autumn and has 750 spaces, offers free parking for the first 30 minutes. Motorists parking for up to three hours have to spend £5 in the store in return for a stamped card, which activates a car park exit barrier. But the barriers are often up and are now being removed because motorists keep driving through them. Now Tesco is to install automatic number plate recognition cameras, despite a planning agreement that barriers must be in place. Tesco spokesman
Tony Fletcher said: “The barriers have been problematic and are going to be changed.” Go Outdoors, on the site of the former Tesco, in New Hall Street, offered free parking earlier this year. It now offers £5 passes in return for a year’s free parking or charges £2.50 for a full day’s parking for non-customers. Customers park for free. Richard Day, City Centre Partnership spokesman, pictured, said: “Customers are changing habits on where they park, due in part to the closure of John Street car park.” The 17 council-run car parks in Hanley currently charge between £1 and £1.30 per hour and up to £7.50 for an all-day ticket. The council is planning to recoup £124,000 of the expected loss by restructuring staffing levels and restricting spending. A report to councillors: “There are various external factors impacting on car park income, including the private sector offering free parking and the closure of John Street surface car park.”
Are Hanley’s parking charges too high? Email us at letters@thesentinel.co.uk
Porters Solicitors
Two in court after shooting TWO men yesterday appeared in court in connection with a shooting in which two people were injured. Ansar Hussain, aged 21, of Lightwood Road, Longton, and Toseef Mohammed, aged 25, of Buccleuch Road, Normacot, are accused of wounding Mohammed Sikander with intent to do him grievous bodily harm. They are further accused of possessing a shotgun with intent to cause Mohammed Sikander to believe that unlawful violence would be used against him or another. Both defendants were remanded in custody and will enter pleas on November 8.
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