THE deputy who steered paid parking through the States fears he may be pushed into saving it. The Environment Department has now formally rejected the idea of extending it out of Town and may look to scrap it altogether.

Deputy Peter Roffey, whose amendment introduced paid parking and the possibility of widening its scope, said he understood some of the arguments against.

But he feared that Environment, now under a new minister, could try to overturn the whole paid-parking resolution.

‘This government has taken enough knocks without taking yet another U-turn on paid parking,’ he said. ‘It could become a bit of a joke.

‘I will certainly, as far as the scheme already approved goes, be strongly supporting its implementation. Whether they wish to or not will be something that the consciences of the members of the Environment Department will let them decide.’

Deputy Roffey said he did not believe paid parking should be adopted all over the island – ‘I don’t believe families spending the day on the beach at Grandes Rocques should be charged for parking there’ – but said it was hard to see the logic in arguing for 10-hour parking in Town but not on the Bridge.

He agreed that a better bus service was an argument for paid parking in Town. The Health Department has rejected charging for its car parks because bus services to facilities were not good enough.

‘I am keen on following Jersey, though. They started charging in their multi-storey car parks and then rolled it out.’

Deputy Roffey added that the States would be likely to need the money from paid parking, which could also see the 15p hourly rate increased soon. He had proposed that sum because he was advised it would cover the cost of public-transport improvements. ‘But if we are looking at ways of raising revenue, is it realistic?’ he said.

New Environment minister David De Lisle does not back paid parking.

His board, which originally proposed an increase in fuel duty to fund the traffic strategy 12 months ago, before Deputy Roffey’s intervention, will discuss the matter next week.

The States will debate the report on island-wide paid parking at the end of the month.