COUNCILS tend to be cautious organisations.

As they often have to manage services that affect people’s livelihoods, wellbeing and environment, maybe that’s no bad thing.

But there are times when councils, like people, must take risks. There are situations when conventional wisdom won’t serve us.

These are the occasions when, to use my favourite phrase from Einstein, doing the same thing and expecting a different result is insanity.

These are the times when the biggest danger comes from refusing to take a risk This week we decided to do something different in Middlesbrough. It was to introduce two hours free parking in all council-run car parks. It may cost the council about £300,000 in lost revenue during the six month trial.

At a time when our finances are under unprecedented pressure that may seem the economics of the madhouse.

I think it is the only sane thing to do. Let me explain why.

Despite all the talk about internet shopping and out-of-town malls, the disappearance of famous names from the high street, town centres remain for most people the place to shop and do business. More importantly, they are a statement of a community’s pride and belief in itself. When people come to Middlesbrough I want them to stay and spend their money here.

But I also want them to leave with good impressions.

I want them to remember Middlesbrough as a welcoming, confident, ambitious town. I want them to come back here.

That is why we have transformed the town centre, created a new civic square, brought live entertainment to the centre, helped local businesses to grow, encouraged the development of a new hotel and nurtured the Boho Zone and the Digital City initiative It is why, despite what some people have suggested, I think it is far better to have a fully-functioning world class art gallery open for business in the town centre than an empty shell with a “Closed until further notice”

sign outside. What kind of message would that send to our competitors?

The free parking initiative is no flight of fancy. It is the product of extensive consultation with the business and retail community, the people at the sharp end of the recession.

It is an acknowledgement of the fact that the town centre is the engine-room of our local economy.

It is also an acknowledgement of the wholly new economic landscape which councils whose main duty is to protect the social and economic wellbeing of the community must come to terms with. Things are not the same.

They will never be the same again.

By 2016 Middlesbrough Council’s spending power will have reduced by around £74m. To cope with cuts on this scale, the council must totally re-engineer its services and way of doing business. The days of tinkering at the edges, borrowing here and paying back there, are over. This is change and downsizing on a scale no one has ever contemplated.

In those circumstances, venturing a six-figure sum for the future wellbeing of the town centre economy is, in my view, necessary and proportionate. My belief is that people just won’t take the free offer and run. Rest assured it won’t be the last risk that this, or many other councils, will take. We are talking about the life or death of local democratic institutions that for better or worse are part of our social fabric and national life.

Only the most energetic and the bravest will survive.