A councillor has been slammed and told to apologise for “fabrication”, as councillors argued over parking being offered to hospital staff at last night’s Reading Borough Council (RBC) Policy committee.

In August, RBC and Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust agreed a deal for hospital to have access to 178 discounted car parking spaces on streets surrounding the hospital, including Upper Redlands Road and Kendrick Road.

The deal also included up to 600 spaces for the hospital at Queens Road Car Park.

READ MORE: Royal Berkshire hospital staff get residential parking spots

But residents were not informed of the plans ahead of the decision, frustrating local Green Party councillors.

Councillor Rob White, leader of the Green group, called in the hospital parking decision book, because he felt the processes had been poor and left residents “in the dark abut what is happening on their roads”.

He added: “Residents weren’t even informed that this was happening. It was picked up by local papers and we informed them because we thought it was important.

“The council keeps saying there isn’t going to be an impact but there is definitely going to be some impact because those bays will be shared.”

But councillor Tony Page, lead member for Environment, Planning and Transport, accused Green Party councillors of “deliberate misrepresentation”, saying they had fabricated the idea that residents would lose 178 resident parking spaces.

He said no resident parking spaces will be lost, just sharing of some spaces from 8.30am-5.30pm, and it would not impact on residents as the spaces will revert to permit holders in evening.

Cllr Page says Redlands residents were consulted on the idea of sharing bays “extensively over many years” and the pay and-display bays were introduced with the understanding they would be shared during the day.

The deputy leader then asked Cllr White to apologise for “the deliberate misrepresentation of these proposals to residents”, accusing him of undermining Royal Berkshire Hospital, causing false concern, “injecting unnecessary bad blood” and a “phenomenal waste of resources”.

READ MORE: 'The council must talk to residents' - Royal Berks parking decision slammed

Councillors agreed to approve the plans retrospectively, with Covid-19 powers allowing them to be made swiftly to support the hospital.

In a report, officers admitted they should have informed residents of plans to give discounted access to hospital staff and should have set out more clearly how the pay and display bays were going to be used.

Responding after the meeting, David McElroy, a Green councillor for Redlands, said: “It sounds like we’re in agreement. This could have all been avoided by the council following a few simple processes, which we’re glad the council has now committed to.

“If Green councillors taking to social media is what’s needed for the council to have even the most basic dialogues with residents then so be it.”