Redcar and Cleveland Council has been accused of “flagrant mismanagement” over the scrapping of plans to create more than 170 additional car parking bays on Saltburn’s Marine Parade.
The £450,000 scheme, which would have reduced the pavement on the top promenade and aimed to cut congestion and improve safety on the well used thoroughfare and the nearby ‘jewel’ streets, was dropped last month after local opposition.
Speaking at a council meeting, Saltburn ward councillor Craig Hannaway said there had originally been a “joined-up plan”, drawn up in 2018, to improve parking provision in the town which involved Marine Parade, Hob Hill and the Cat Nab car park.
He questioned why the Marine Parade scheme was then included in a wider masterplan for the town with preparatory work, understood to involve the moving of lampposts, beginning at the same time the masterplan was still being consulted over.
The council previously said the scheme was unconnected to that consultation.
Cllr Hannway said the planned measures were “stupefied by flagrant mismanagement”.
He said: “After five years of waiting we were finally shown a detailed plan with the measurements, but the campaign against it had already started then.”
The councillor joked about what he said was a “referendum” over the Marine Parade scheme – a survey organised by the council which received 1,900 replies – and involved contributions from people living in different parts of the country, “including Southampton”.
He said: “Why stop at Southampton – we could have given America a say, there must be somebody in the central African republic who also wasn’t consulted.
“This is not the way to manage growth in our main visitor destination.”
Cllr Hannaway asked if there was to be a new plan for Marine Parade to alleviate parking issues.
Responding to Cllr Hannaway’s comments, Councillor Lynn Pallister, the cabinet member for growth and enterprise, said: “Everything else has been delivered and we were up to Marine Parade for the next part of the strategy.
“We were starting to receive a lot of complaints from local residents and there was a lot of upset, people in Saltburn saying they didn’t want the changes to Marine Parade.
“Councillor [Carl] Quartermain [the cabinet member for highways and transport] and Councillor [Alec] Brown [the council leader] felt we needed to be more of a listening council.
“The survey came back and the vast majority of people didn’t want to see changes to Marine Parade.
“Because of that we haven’t been able to move forward.”
She said ward councillors in the town “would be involved in what we do next”.
The council previously said funding for the Marine Parade scheme from the Tees Valley Combined Authority was “time limited”.
Cllr Pallister added: “We will wait and see what happens with the funding, but it is staying in Saltburn.”
Speaking last month, Cllr Brown said:”We have made the decision based on what matters to the community, and we thank everyone who took part in the consultation.
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“We are a listening administration.”
He said the council still planned to resurface the entire promenade, fix its crumbling railings and would look to install new electric vehicle charging points on Marine Parade.
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