A councillor is boycotting town hall meetings as a protest against being forced to pay to park his car.

Jack Walton, a member of Bury council, has been refusing to turn up to meetings held during the day because of the new rules requiring councillors to buy a permit.

Struggling Bury council is making all staff and councillors pay for parking permits - which can cost up to £1,060 per year - in a bid to raise cash following huge government cuts.

But, since the new rule was introduced in December, Coun Walton has declined to show up at day-time meetings between 8.30am-4pm - the hours the permits are in force.

Meeting minutes of the council's Joint Consultative Committee, of which Coun Walton is a member, from December 9 recorded Coun Walton's 'apology for absence'.

It said: "Councillor Walton had requested that the reasons for his non-attendance be reported to the committee. The reasons related to the withdrawal of free car parking, which would result in charged being incurred for attendance at day-time meetings."

Coun Walton told the MEN to 'take a stand' against the charges, which he said were 'ridiculous'.

He added: "I thought it was dreadfully unfair that I should pay. It would mean I would have to pay around £600 per year and I wouldn't even be guaranteed a space.

"I have been a councillor for 15 years and have always had a very good attendance record. I get called to a lot of meetings during the day because I'm retired."

Asked whether he had considered using the multi-storey car-park opposite - which costs £1 for an hour or £1.60 for two hours - Coun Walton answered: "Why should I have to?"

The 73-year-old added that he should also not have to 'wait in the pouring rain' for the bus to get to meetings, despite having a pensioner bus pass.

But Coun Walton added he did 'feel guilty' for missing the meetings but added: "Someone's got to take a stand."

The Conservative councillor, who represents Church ward, was slammed by Labour councillors over his stand at a meeting of the council on Wednesday.

Coun Trevor Holt told the MEN: "I think it's sad that he's taken this stance. It seems a rather odd point of principle. It's unfortunate that we've had to change the terms and conditions for all staff to make them pay more for things like parking. But once we had decided to do that, it was only fair that it should apply to councillors as well."

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