The Labour councillors responsible for the botched Lendal Bridge trial will formally face calls to resign at tomorrow night’s meeting of York’s Full Council.

Council Leader James Alexander and Cllr Dave Merrett, the Cabinet Member responsible for the trial, will both face a vote to decide whether they keep their jobs.

The move is part of a Liberal Democrat motion which also calls for the 60,000 motorists fined for crossing Lendal Bridge to be repaid automatically without having to apply for a refund.

So far Labour has only said York Council will reimburse people who apply for a repayment.

The motion follows the embarrassing U-Turn last week when Labour announced that it would drop its appeal against a Government Traffic Adjudicator ruling which said the Lendal Bridge closure was unlawful.

In April Cllr Merrett said that if the trial was proved to be unlawful he would resign, telling BBC Radio York: “Yes, I accept that at the end of the day that if we’ve got it wrong to that extent that I’d have to resign”.

In April Cllr Merrett lost responsibility for Transport, but kept his Cabinet post taking control of Environmental Services.

Cllr Keith Aspden, Liberal Democrat Group Leader who will move the vote tomorrow night, commented:

“Our amended motion calls on the Council Leader and the Cabinet Member in charge of the trial to apologise for the Lendal Bridge debacle and resign.

“By dropping its appeal the council has admitted that the trial was unlawful and the council was guilty of illegally fining 60,000 innocent motorists. Cllr Merrett said he would resign if the closure was proved unlawful. It has been proved unlawful and therefore he has to leave the Cabinet. Shifting him to another Cabinet job is not good enough. Cllr Alexander should follow him out. He has failed to get a grip of the issue from day one and still refuses to apologise for a policy which did reputational damage to York and looks set to do financial damage to the council.

“Their resignations should come with a commitment from the council that all the fines will be repaid automatically. The motorists fined were fined unlawfully and therefore they should not have to go to the time and expense of applying for a refund. It should be done automatically and come with a formal apology from the council. Otherwise, I fear that the council could face further legal action and may be digging itself an even deeper financial hole.”

Keith Aspden will move an amended motion at tomorrow’s Full Council meeting (Guildhall 6:30pm) which contains the following and all councillors will vote on:

Lendal Bridge

Council notes the report in The Press on 27th February which revealed important facts about the Lendal Bridge closure.

Council further notes that:
1. The Labour Cabinet’s six-month trial closure of Lendal Bridge should have finished at the end of February
2. The closure has brought widespread criticism from local residents, business owners, tourists and tourist groups
3. Negative media and social media coverage has been generated to the detriment of our city
4. The closure has failed to significantly improve overall bus journey times
5. Traffic displaced by the closure has caused increased congestion elsewhere in the city e.g. Foss Islands Road and Water End at Clifton Bridge
6. Officers have admitted that the trial closure has had little impact on overall air quality
7. The Labour Cabinet Member responsible has admitted that the signage at the start of the trial was “very confusing”
8. Around 45,000 motorists have received fines for crossing the bridge
9. In April when challenged as to what he would do if the fines given to motorists using Lendal Bridge were proved to have been unlawful, Cllr Merrett told BBC Radio York: “Yes, I accept that at the end of the day that if we’ve got it wrong to that extent that I’d have to resign”
10. The Cabinet’s decision to reopen Lendal Bridge and withdraw the appeal against the Traffic Adjudicator’s ruling that the fines given out were unlawful.

Council therefore resolves to ask Cabinet to:
a. publicly admit that the trial has been botched and to apologise for this
b. commit to consulting with residents and local businesses before bringing forward any future plans for Lendal Bridge
c. refund all Lendal Bridge fines as they were issued using an unlawful method of enforcement.

Council further calls on the Cabinet Member in charge of the trial to stick to his word and resign from the Cabinet; Council also calls for the Leader of the Council to take responsibility for this botched trial and resign.