A senior borough councillor, who claims to have the backing of colleagues, has made the request ahead of Thursday s crunch meeting to decide on future changes to the controversial scheme.

Cllr Peter Popple has written to parking supremo Derek Rowell, council head of technical services, asking for the figures to be made public right away.

The council insists the costs will not be available until next month when a full breakdown of all the financial implications of the scheme has been promised in full.

Mr Popple said: I am concerned, despite requests from myself and other members, that we are being denied information about finances prior to Thursday s special meeting.

How can we be expected to carry out a thorough review if we are not given the figures available to date?

After all, the scheme has been up and running a number of months.

Surely start-up costs and weekly on-street parking revenues are known.

How can members expect to be fully briefed without any financial information, when the agenda for the meeting is full of costing projections, implications and charges?

Mr Rowell, responding to Mr Popple s request, told him the purpose of the review this week was to examine the mechanics of the scheme so that any improvements could be made quickly.

He said: I anticipate the capital expenditure will be within the normal tolerances for projects of this nature.

Officers are currently reviewing the revenue budgets with a view to reporting these details to the normal monitoring meeting in November.

At Thursday s meeting, councillors will be asked to debate and decide on 16 recommendations put forward which are designed to help streamline the on-street parking scheme.

Before the changes were suggested, about 10,000 residents, businesses and visitors to the town were consulted and their feedback used to help shape the proposed alterations.

Chief executive John Trebble said he was convinced the responses showed there was a broad support for the scheme as a whole in Scarborough.

But before the system is accepted he and other council members still face a backlash from those who are largely opposed to some or all of the measures.

Business Alliance Group spokesman Justine Craven said it also felt the financial implications of the scheme were being kept hidden before the meeting.

She said: We haven t seen any costs. We have not seen a breakdown of what has been spent where and why.

Branding the scheme nothing more than a money making scam, she added: We are still very dubious about the financial viability of introducing on-street parking in Scarborough.

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