OFFICERS suggested raising revenue through evening parking charges when Labour ran York council - but the party said "no" because of the potential damage, Labour group leader Dave Merrett revealed today.

He also said that Labour had suggested costed alternatives to charges earlier this year, which the council's director of resources had agreed were "practical and deliverable", but the proposals had been voted out by the ruling Liberal Democrats.

Cash-saving measures had included efficiency savings by combining two departments which are closely linked (environment and development services and commercial services) and by reducing administration in commercial services, cutting back on new senior management posts in resources and cutting back on a small proportion of York Pride initiatives, while supporting the majority of more important ones.

Coun Merrett also claimed that charges could still be scrapped now, saying: "It is true that it is hard to significantly alter a budget once it has been set, but it is not impossible - if the Lib Dems are willing they could find a way out."

The councillor was responding after a number of readers, while supportive of the paper's Stop The Highway Robbery campaign, said they wanted to know how Labour believed it could afford to scrap the charges.

He said: "People have asked us whether Labour would have introduced these new charges if we had been in power, and I can genuinely say we would not. "Labour was in control of the council for 19 years - if we had wanted to introduce such charges we had plenty of time to do so."

He conceded Labour had increased city centre daytime charges as part of a policy to control congestion, but said that at the same time it had invested in local bus services and Park & Ride to keep people coming into the city centre.

"But we never introduced evening charges - council officers did suggest them to us as a potential way to raise money, but we said no. We knew they would damage York's evening economy as well as its cultural and community life."

He said Labour had not introduced on-street charges in marginal shopping streets, and nor had it sought to "profiteer" from the Respark scheme, which was run on a break-even basis.

He claimed the Lib Dems had not attempted to defend their "indefensible" policies, but had instead claimed they had no choice. "They say it wasn't their fault, it isn't their responsibility. This line is as shameful as it is untrue.

"Setting a budget is always difficult, and there are many choices to be made. The Lib Dems chose to introduce the charges, there were alternatives, and they have to take responsibility for that."

He said Labour was proposing an immediate full and thorough all-party review of parking arrangements. "The council must be open-minded in its approach and be willing to consider any recommendations that come forward from the review....Doing nothing is quite clearly not an option."

Updated: 08:31 Wednesday, July 28, 2004