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Parking Charges

Parking anger in Yarm

Dec 16th, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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As we enter the festive season, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council has given residents and businesses in Yarm a very unwelcome early Christmas present. This council is another in the long list of councils who think introducing parking charges is a great revenue raising opportunity. They just assume that everyone will cough up and not change their shopping and driving habits. They only have to look at examples we have quoted from around the country to know this is not true. 

“An ignorant and short-sighted decision that seems solely about raising money for the council regardless of the impact on Yarm High Street”, is what one resident said on a local newspaper’s website. Unsurprisingly the council disagrees, and said pay and display will give more flexibility to motorists! As defences go, that must be the most bizarre one I’ve heard all year. All pay and display will do is take money out of the local economy to fill the council’s coffers, but I guess when you are desperate you will say anything to justify your position.

When I wrote about parking issues last week, I suggested councillors and council officers should try running a small business for a week. They should experience first hand what it’s like being a small independent trader. They may then appreciate how difficult it is trading in the current economic climate. It looks like Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council is another to add to the list of councils who fail to appreciate just how much parking charges can wreck the local economy.

Some councils double parking charges

Dec 8th, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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In last week’s bulletin sent out to all our supporters, I asked for examples of increases in parking charges across the country. Many thanks to those who got in touch. (If you would like to receive our weekly bulletin, sent out every Friday, click on this link to sign-up)

It appears that many councils are planning increases, or are considering charges on evenings and weekends. Some councils regard motorists as the gift that keeps on giving, however as we have highlighted this year, some councils – Wiltshire Council in particular – have found themselves in the eye of a storm as drivers desert town and city centres to visit and shop in other places that are cheaper to park.

Brighton and Hove Council has been in the news lately because the ruling Green administration is planning to refuse the extra cash from the government to help freeze council tax. It instead plans to increase it by 3.5%. Cllr Jason Kitcat, the finance portfolio holder, was awarded our Pin Head of the Month prize in November for this action that will increase the burden on council taxpayers. But it’s not just council tax bills that will increase. Car parking increases are on the way too.

Last week the council approved to advertise price hikes of more than 100%! The Green Party has said this is to reduce congestion, improve air quality and promote the use of sustainable transport.

Not surprisingly this has been greeted with opposition. At a time when when residents, visitors and traders can least afford it, these increases would have a devastating effect. If you wish to object to these plans, you have been allowed 21 days from 29 November (the day the meeting took place) to lodge your complaint.

There are also plans to double the cost of parking in Gravesend, and introduce charges on a Saturday. Free parking on a Saturday was one of the town’s selling points, but that seems to be lost on Parking Manager, Paul Gibbons, who told the cabinet, “We seem to be the only town in the county which offers free parking on Saturdays.”

Local trader, Bob Atkinson, said, “It is disgusting what they are doing. If you really, really want to drive everyone to Bluewater, put the prices up.” There are many more comments along the same lines.

There are planned increases in Chichester, and a petition has been set-up to oppose the introduction of charges on Sundays, and Oxford City Council has introduced charges at park and ride car parks. This must be to pay for all the non-jobs they have advertised this year!

What amazes me is the reaction from some councillors. You would think they would be acutely aware of how many shops are closing in their high streets, and how difficult it is for everyone during these hard economic times. Instead they defend increases by saying ‘our charges are favourable compared to other towns in the area’. They justify increases by saying ’50p isn’t much.’ They seem to be completely divorced from reality. Perhaps they should trade places for a week with a small independent trader. Perhaps that’s the dose of reality they need.

Wiltshire Council Parking Fiasco

Dec 1st, 2011
by Tim Newark.
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In the vital shopping days leading up to Christmas, Wiltshire Council continues to hinder hard-pressed traders with their farcical parking charges policy, ignoring both popular protest and a ‘Show Some Sense’ local newspaper campaign. The latest twist in this sorry saga sees Wiltshire Council proffering a miserly 10p cut in parking charges in Trowbridge, Chippenham and Salisbury—after having increased charges by 300 per cent in some of their car parks!

Council leader Jane Scott was forced to introduce this 10p cut following a sharp shortfall in business for local traders, but the revised charges won’t formally come into effect until December 19th, leaving just six shopping days before Christmas. Nice timing!

Local residents have been unimpressed. ‘As if 10p will tempt anyone to pay for parking in any of these towns,’ said one. ‘It is pitiful to watch perfectly reasonable town centres having the life sucked out of them by supermarkets and out-of-town mega-stores with their free parking, whilst the local governments and planning agencies actually encourage the process with bizarre and unimaginative policies.’

In the meantime, traders and residents in Devizes are furious that Wiltshire Council is not introducing cuts to their parking charges. ‘Charges should be reduced in Devizes,’ says their Mayor, ‘because they are stopping people from coming into our town. I really can’t understand why Melksham has kept its two-hour free parking and Wiltshire Council hasn’t changed the parking in Devizes Market Place. We are very similar towns.’

Wiltshire Council cut the free parking in Devizes Market Place to just half-an-hour, hardly time to fill a shopping basket. ‘The feedback we have had is that retailers in the town are suffering as a result of increased parking charges,’ says the chairman of Devizes’ Chamber of Commerce, ‘in spite of Wiltshire Council putting it down to the general economic situation.’

Tim Newark, Bath & South-West TaxPayers’ Alliance

Cirencester’s naked revenue raiser

Oct 21st, 2011
by Tim Newark.
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For a long time, we were all fed the line that council parking charges were not merely another tax on residents but were ring-fenced for the purpose of improving the local transport system. Now Cotswold District Council (CDC) has done away with this pretence and is keen to introduce Sunday and overnight parking fees in all its car parks. It seemed a ‘fair way’ to raise local income, said one councillor, and ‘could net the council as much as £50,000 per year’.

Local business representatives were not so keen and put up a fight against the proposal, with the result that it was scrapped in all Cotswold car parks except one. ‘In the light of the economic projections,’ said a district councillor, ‘we feel that now is not the time to extend or increase parking charges.’ It is the last thing that hard-pressed town centre shops and businesses need.

Good news, apart from the one exception—the Brewery Car Park in Cirencester. This was thought to be a potential money-spinner and CDC still wanted to introduce the off-peak charges there. Cirencester Town Council, however, was not so enthusiastic and threatened taking legal action against the decision. ‘I hope we will be able to move forward in a positive way,’ said a town councillor diplomatically, ‘to achieve a car parking policy which will support the vitality and viability of Cirencester.’

Cirencester mobilised people power to fight the off-peak parking charges and local campaigners raised a petition signed by nearly 3,000 residents and 450 businesses against CDC’s parking plan—dubbed ‘a naked revenue raiser’ by one protestor—but their efforts fell on deaf ears at a packed district council meeting earlier this week when the cabinet rejected their concerns. ‘We accept the concerns of members of the public and stakeholders both in Cirencester and surrounding areas,’ said the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services—and then proceeded to ignore them.

Overnight and Sunday charges will be imposed, whether the citizens of Cirencester like it or not. Still, there is one practical consideration that could undermine all this. ‘If we’re going to enforce in one car park with free ones nearby,’ noted one councillor, ‘who is going to pay?’ Doh!

Victory in Winslow

Oct 17th, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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In June, I wrote about a local campaign in Winslow, Buckinghamshire to stop the introduction of parking charges in one of the town’s car parks.

Last year, Aylesbury Vale District Council announced plans to introduce parking charges in Greyhound Lane Car Park. A petition opposing these charges was organised by a local resident, the indomitable Ruth Ash. Ruth had never been involved in political campaigning before, but she knew parking charges would have a negative effect on her community. Although she was told to forget it as she would never win, she set about collecting signatures, and managed to get 2186 people to sign her petition – over half of Winslow’s adult population. 

It has been a long and rocky road, however thanks to her determination and tenacity she has achieved a remarkable victory, and parking will remain free until 2018. It should have been obvious to councillors and council officers that charges would drive business elsewhere. Instead the wheels of bureaucracy moved at just about the slowest pace they could as consultations and enquiries took place. It will be interesting to find out how much all of this has cost taxpayers in AVDC, and this is something I will be enquiring after.

In recent months I have highlighted campaigns across the country where local people have stood up against their councils on this issue. In Salisbury, where local traders told of a dramatic fall in business after charges were increased, the local newspaper led the campaign. It was the same story in Northumberland, but I have not come across a campaign that has been so successful and organised by just one person. Ruth is a modest lady who doesn’t want the credit, but as I told her, she deserves it, as without her hard work the council would have go its way, and her town would have been poorer as a result.

I hope this story serves as a catalyst to others around the country. It is possible to take on your council and win. This story has proven it.

Nottingham’s parking levy

Oct 4th, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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News from Nottingham, and once again it isn’t good. Next April, the city council will introduce a workplace parking levy. Any business in the city that has more than 10 spaces for its staff will have to pay the council £279 per year, per space. Make no mistake, other councils around the country are looking very closely at this scheme. Don’t be surprised if it it introduced in your home town or city. They question is: who will pay? Will it be the businesses or those who work for the business?

Andrew Jameson, the managing director of Keltruck, has estimated this scheme would cost his company £170K if it was rolled out nationwide. He also said:

“As a responsible employer who provides off-road parking for my employees, I’m going to be penalised. The roads around Riverside Industrial Estate are lined with cars for other companies which don’t provide sufficient parking so there is a disparity.”

Despite this obvious truth from Mr Jameson, the council still thinks this is going to help reduce congestion in Nottingham. It wants to use the revenue raised to plough into public transport, but how much of this extra revenue is going to be put into public transport, and how much of it is going to be eaten away in administrative costs? How many extra costs are businesses going to face?

Businesses don’t want to pay the levy, and neither do any of the workforce. It will create extra parking problems. In an interview to BBC Radio Nottingham Mr Jameson said he visits the Nottingham depot of Keltruck about six times a year, and even he will have to declare he uses a space, and cough up £279 for the privilege of parking on his own company’s premises. Repair vehicles visiting the depot will also have to pay. He even said he would move the mobile engineering away from Nottingham to other depots because the council is going to charge him for a man to park his van. This scheme is wrong on so many levels.

The council has said it estimates around 25% of those businesses who should have registered for the scheme have failed to do so. Now it intends to speak to those businesses to ‘help them’ get registered. This is before they resort to legal action.

This council is a joke. It wastes our money, refuses to publish spending above £500, has a poor record in answering freedom of information requests, and now it wants to drive jobs away from the city. If you hear that your council is planning something similar in the future, be sure to let us know. This awful scheme in Nottingham is going to ahead, but we may be able to stop it on other parts of the country. Businesses need a break during these very trying economic times, and certainly don’t need something like this.

NHS parking charges

Sep 30th, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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There’s some bad news if you are sick or are visiting a sick friend or relative in Goole. Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has increased parking charges at Goole Hospital. Charges have risen this month by a massive 13.33%, and then will increase again next September by the same amount. The amount of free parking time has also decreased from 40 minutes to 20 minutes.

Cllr Brent Huntingdon, the chairman of planning at Goole Town Council has said that will not be enough time to park-up, and get to the ward and back. Very true. It seems as if the Trust is determined to extract cash out of you. A spokesman for the Trust gave the usual, standard response:

“We’ve tried to make the charges as fair as possible in line with best practice national guidelines.”

Castle Hill Hospital, near Hull

Although this is a massive increase, parking charges in Goole are not as bad as they are in Hull. Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust must have some of the highest parking charges in the country, charging £1.50 for the first hour; £2.50 for up to two hours, and £5 for over two hours, with a maximum stay of six hours. If you have to take your son or daughter to casualty because they have injured themselves, you have no idea how long you will be. Because it is ‘pay and display’ the hospital is almost guaranteed £5. You can’t risk putting anything less in the machine, otherwise the parking wardens will fine you.

Although I don’t object to hospitals making a charge for a well lit, secure car park, clearly most regard parking as an additional revenue stream, and because it is often difficult to park elsewhere, they have you over a barrel. Best practice national guidelines is a cop out. Massive charges, and massive increases in charges cannot be justified.

It will be interesting to see how charges differ around the country. Welsh hospitals don’t have any charges, and there are only three hospitals in Scotland that charge. Send me some examples, and I’ll prepare a list of those hospitals who are clearly taking out-patients and visitors for a ride!

Cornish parking fees cut

Sep 29th, 2011
by Tim Newark.
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Good news from Cornwall – councillors are listening to local residents and shopkeepers and are planning to reduce the cost of parking in some council car parks. The chairman of Cornwall’s parking advisory panel has told Helston residents that he is recommending the reduction of council parking fees to just £1 for two hours.

‘It’s a huge step forward to help low paid drivers who have to work in the shops,’ said Cllr Andy Wallis. ‘I think this is good news for Helston, to encourage people back into the town and encourage people to park away from the streets, which can be quite congested.’

It will also be more attractive for tourists, who have long complained about the elevated parking fees they face on holiday in Cornwall. Such a positive change, however, stems from a disparity in parking fees with other Cornish towns.

At nearby St Just, council parking is free. ‘With free parking on offer,’ said a local, ‘it certainly encouraged me to spend more time in St Just round the shops as I was not clock watching for the car park.’ But that is set to come to an end, much to the annoyance of local residents. ‘This area is one of deprivation and the affect on the local population and businesses could be catastrophic,’ said one. There is the added factor that the land for the car park was given to the council on the condition that parking remain free.  Parking charges imposed on Penzance have already had a negative impact on several businesses.

‘There are currently a wide variety of charges in place for council owned car parks,’ says the council on its website, ‘and the aim of the changes is to ensure there is a fair and consistent charging policy across the whole of Cornwall.’

‘Parking is a very important issue which affects almost everyone in Cornwall and it is vital for both local residents and the viability of our towns and villages that we get it right,’ said Andy Wallis, after a major consultation with local residents and business people. Critics have said that parking in Cornwall can be as expensive as parking in London. ‘It is also important to remember that we have substantially increased the number of hours people can park free of charge,’ Wallis continued, ‘with charges in car parks in some of the smaller towns not coming into operation until after 9 am and ending at 4pm.’ Will this be enough to relieve the pressure on hard-pressed high street traders?

Tim Newark, Bath & South-West TaxPayers’ Alliance

The Bank of Rotherham

Sep 15th, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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At a time when Rotherham Council is cutting its budget and making some of its employees redundant, you wouldn’t think it had any spare cash to splash, would you?

Well, you’d be wrong, because the council who spent £2.9 million refurbishing its Town Hall (including £310,000 on chairs and coverings) has recently spent almost £10 million on furnishing its new multi-million pound offices. But that isn’t all it’s been using our money for.

The council also seems to see its future in the banking industry. Last year it loaned £5 million to Rotherham College to help build a new state of the art building on its campus. Recently it managed to find another £5 million to loan to Rotherham United Football Club. Yesterday I was interviewed on BBC Radio Sheffield about the council’s decision to loan a local businessman £750K to help renovate six buildings in the town. He argued that one of the town’s oldest buildings, the former 15th century coaching inn, the Three Cranes, will be part of the plans to rejuvenate the town. The council agreed to loan him this money despite banks refusing to do so on the terms he wanted.

Council taxpayers in the town are not happy, and rightly so. They want to see their money being spent on frontline services, not on expensive refurbishments and loans. The council has said it has guarantees on the loan, which of course means if it could not be paid back it would assume ownership of the properties. At a time when many councils are reducing the size of their property portfolios, Rotherham is potentially adding to theirs.

Putting to one side whether or not they are sound investments (which is questionable) councils are not there to act as banks. Spare cash should be used to help protect front-line services, and fund reductions in council tax. Although all of us want to see our town and city centres flourish, councils can help by reducing car parking charges. The government can assist by reducing the amount businesses pay in corporation tax and business rates. It can look at the levels of employers’ national insurance contributions. There are many ways to stimulate the market without councils resorting to loaning vast sums of our money on deals the banks won’t touch.

Hull’s 10% parking increase

Sep 12th, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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A few weeks ago, I wrote about a petition I have set up calling on Hull City Council to abolish on-street parking charges in the city centre on Sundays.

Last week it was announced that on-street parking charges will be abolished on Sundays during November and December, however – even though few people currently park in those spaces because of the charges – Hull City Council has decided to pay for its scheme and will be permanently increasing charges by 10% from January.

Cllr Hale, left, with Cllr Steve Brady, leader of Hull City Council

The deputy leader of the council, Daren Hale, had this to say about the decision:

“This increase was actually approved by the previous Lib Dem council leader, but delayed until after the local elections. That delay has not helped our financial situation. While we regret having to make an increase, it would be typically hypocritical for the Liberal Democrats who approved this increase to criticise us for implementing it.”

I spoke to the previous Lib Dem leader of the council and asked him for his comments. He denied the accusation that he had approved an increase in charges, but that really isn’t the point. The new administration did not have to vote for these increases, especially after a recent report revealing that a quarter of the city’s shops are standing empty. One contributing factor is the high parking charges, and it’s not just shopkeepers complaining. In the Hull Daily Mail today, a member of the public had this to say:

“Quite a few people will choose to shop out of town. People will just go to places like St Andrew’s Quay and Kingswood because most of the things you need, you can get there. If the council makes parking cheaper or free, rather than more expensive, then more people will come into town.”

She is right. St Andrew’s Quay and Kingswood have retail parks where you can park for free, and it is very difficult to find a parking space there on weekends – especially Sundays. In comparison, the city centre is empty.

I understand the council has to balance its books and has to make some difficult decisions, but increasing parking charges at a time when businesses are saying they are already too high is not the way to do it. It will be counter productive, and could easily put more people out of business.

If you live, work, or study in Hull, you can sign my online petition, and if you would like a paper copy of the petition to pass around your place of work, please get in touch. The petition was set up before this decision was announced, but please rest assured I will be campaigning against these proposed increases too. Anyone who lives in Hull wants to see the city centre flourish, and the council needs to work with businesses, not against them.

Parking charges are reduced in North Lincolnshire

Sep 2nd, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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After all the stories I have commented on in recent months about car parking charges, it is refreshing to hear about a council that has decided to make it cheaper for residents and visitors to park. From yesterday, North Lincolnshire Council has scrapped parking charges for the first two hours in Brigg, and one hour’s free parking will also be introduced in Scunthorpe and Ashby in the next few weeks.

Cllr Nigel Sherwood, the cabinet member responsible for highways and neighbourhoods had this to say:

“We are making it easier and cheaper for people to visit the town centres and I hope this will lead to an upturn in trade.”

I hope it will too, because as we have seen in places like Salisbury, where the council has treated motorists as cash cows, shoppers have left town and city centres in droves in order to avoid high parking charges.

Two hours free parking!

This news will be particularly welcome for independent shopkeepers – the lifeblood of local economies the length and breadth of the country. They are already struggling thanks to the economic problems we are all facing, and the crippling high business rates they are forced to pay the government. Anything that encourages more shoppers to park-up and spend their money with them, is good news.

I hope Hull City Council takes note of what is happening across the Humber, and takes up my suggestion of introducing free on-street parking in the city centre on Sundays. This is another way of encouraging visitors and shoppers, rather than turning them away.

If you live, work, or study in Hull, please sign my parking petition, and help local businesses.

Abolish on-street parking charges on Sundays in Hull

Aug 11th, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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At the end of last year, one of my concerns was councils would try and raise extra revenue by increasing parking charges. It concerned me because I knew it would have a detrimental impact on local shopkeepers. The sheer amount of stories there have been this year has proved my fears were not unfounded.

Last week, I was talking to a cafe owner in Hull City Centre regarding on-street parking charges on Sundays. Although there are free car parks in the city centre on Sundays, the council still charges for on-street parking at the full rate of £1.30 an hour, up to a maximum of £2.60 for a two hour stay. Unsurprisingly, most of the parking spaces remain empty. 

Traders tell me that if Hull had free on-street parking on Sundays it would encourage people to park-up, and have a coffee or lunch in one of the city’s many cafes and restaurants. This argument makes sense. If you don’t have to pay to park, you are more likely to pop into a couple of shops and then have something to eat or drink. If you are pushed for time, you don’t want to park in a multi storey car park, and then walk into the city centre. You want to park somewhere that’s convenient and easy. It’s not that the council will lose out on much revenue either. As I’ve already stated, very few people currently park their cars in the on-street spaces. 

I have therefore set-up a petition on Hull City Council’s website calling for the abolition of on-street parking charges in the city centre on Sundays. If you live, work, or study in Hull, you are eligible to sign the petition. If you don’t live in the city, but have friends or relations who do, please send them the link. No-one wants to see boarded-up shops, and businesses going to the wall. This is one way we can all do something to help prevent this happening.  

The right steps in Gwynedd

Jul 27th, 2011
by Lee Canning.
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As reported by the BBC, Gwynedd Council in North Wales is freezing parking charges until a review takes place in February 2013. A report to councillors had this to say:

“The review should consider the impact of parking fees on the local economy and the viability of town centres given the possible impact this could have on businesses and residents. This element of the review should include a survey of shopping habits, a survey of businesses’ opinion and give consideration to town centre regeneration schemes.”

The portfolio holder for the environment, Cllr Gareth Roberts, also said, “At a time when retail shops in town centres are struggling to survive, we must address car parking issues to address the volatile economic climate.”

We agree, and if Cllr Roberts and Gwynedd Council can see it, why can’t others? It should be staring them in the face. Too many councils treat motorists as cash cows, assuming that visitors and shoppers will not change their habits and go elsewhere. This has proved a false assumption.

In recent weeks we have highlighted how high parking charges in Salisbury and North Northumberland have had a detrimental impact on businesses. Leeds City Council is proposing to increase charges in some of its car parks by 10%, and Manchester City Council by a whopping 20%. Manchester is already the most expensive place to park outside London.

So a big thumbs-up to Gwynedd who have put the needs of local businesses first. Our hope is other councils around the country will follow Gwynedd’s lead, and not try and make a fast buck out of the people they are supposed to be serving.

Salisbury asks Wiltshire Council to show some sense

Jul 5th, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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In last week’s bulletin, we asked you to get in touch if your council was introducing or increasing car parking charges (if you are not registered as a supporter and would like to receive our weekly bulletin, please click here). We got an immediate response from all around the country, with a couple of e-mails from Salisbury in particular catching our attention.

Wiltshire Council decided to dramatically increase parking charges in Salisbury last April. Before then you could park for an hour for £1; since then the minimum period has increased to two hours and prices have gone up by 10%. The cost of all day parking has also increased.

As a direct result of these increases, local businesses have been suffering a slump in trade. One local shop owner, Theresa Wood, has seen business fall by 90% since the price hike. She said:

“We were doing really rather well, but trade went 30 per cent down immediately, and it’s just carried on getting steadily worse as we lose our customer base.”

In another example, a local professional photographer had a meeting at 5:30 pm. Although it is free to park after 6:00 pm, he still had to pay £2.20 to cover half an hour. He said he is moving his businesses to another town “because there are no parking charges there, so people can come and see me in my office and it won’t cost them any money.”

All of this has promoted local people to rise up against the new charges and a campaign has been organised by the Salisbury Journal – the Show Some Sense Campaign, who are calling for a reintroduction of one-hour parking and for all-day parking to be reduced to £6. The campaign has already attracted 7000 signatures on a petition, however whether this success translates into action remains to be seen.

Although the council leader has admitted ‘we let the city down’, the best residents can hope for is a lengthy review, which will no doubt cost many thousands of pounds. Although the council realises it has made a mistake, it still seems incapable of doing the right thing and simply reducing the charges. In its misguided attempts to raise extra cash, it is strangling the businesses it is supposed to be serving and driving visitors and customers away.

There is also a sting in the tale of this story. Parking wardens have been told to work an extra three hours a day in order to clampdown on those who are illegally parking. No doubt these are the same people who object to paying £2.20 to park their car irrespective of whether they are there for 20 minutes or two hours. It’s no suprise local businesses are wondering whether the council is deliberately trying to push them into bankruptcy.

Once again we have a council who, instead of serving people, expects people to serve them. Our message to Wiltshire Council is the same as that of the Salisbury Journal – SHOW SOME SENSE!

10% price hike in Leeds City Council car parks

Jun 28th, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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We have highlighted many instances of increases in taxation through the back door. Burial fees going up, increased planning application charges, and the old chestnut – parking charges.

As anyone who owns a car will testify, the cost of motoring makes you think twice before you make some journeys. When I travel from Hull to Leeds these days, I take the train, as it is much cheaper than driving. When we go out as a family to do some shopping, if we take the car, we tend to visit large shopping centres where the parking is free. The cost of parking in most city centres is prohibitively expensive, and if you visit Leeds, that’s about to get worse.

Leeds City Council is set to increase charges in many of its car parks by up to 10%. In one of the long stay
multistorey car parks, this will push charges up from £8.20 to over £9 a day. The long stay car parks get full very early in the day, so if you want to visit for a shorter period of time, the costs  in the medium stay car parks will typically rise from £7.20 to almost £8 for five hours.

The reason for the increases is because the income from car parks was £700K less than budgeted for in 2010/11, but raising charges does not necessarily mean increased revenue. I have a friend who works for TransPennine Express Trains. They told me more and more people are taking the train to Leeds and Manchester. I imagine the high cost of fuel is the biggest factor influencing these decisions, but parking charges will be factored into the equation. Dramatically increasing charges is self-defeating, and can easily lead to reduced revenue.

If you work in Leeds, and are struggling to find an extra £20 month, you have options. Take the train, try and find free on-street parking further away from the city centre, or look for a job elsewhere. If you are a visitor you have a choice too. Councils have to stop treating motorists as cash cows. They have to find ways to make ends meet, and so do the rest of us. Hitting the motorist yet again is not the way to do it.

The end of free parking in Lincolnshire

Jun 23rd, 2011
by Andrew Allison.
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Lincolnshire County Council – in common with many local authorities – is planning to taking on the responsibility of parking enforcement from the police. This is due to commence in June 2012. This policy has caused controversy in Hull, where parking wardens sniff around cars, waiting to pounce like pit-bull terriers. This has caused numerous complaints from irate motorists whose only crime has been allowing their cars to hang-over double yellow lines. Some of the spaces are so narrow, it is virtually impossible to fit your car in – not that this bothers the wardens.

Coming soon...

In Lincolnshire, there are hundreds of free on-street parking spaces in the smaller towns. Many people park there just to visit a couple of shops and then go on their way. Naturally traders are happy with this arrangement as it encourages people to shop in their town.  All of this could change in June next year. The council in its wisdom  wants to scrap  free parking, and install parking meters. Its rationale: we need to find more money to pay for parking wardens! These are the same wardens who will patrol these smaller towns, handing out tickets to those drivers who have not ‘paid and displayed’ the correct fee.

I understand councils need to find the money from somewhere, but no-one wants to see  more businesses go to the wall. This is a very likely outcome if Lincolnshire County Council gets its way. On the clip below you can see a report of the story, and how petty wardens have been in Hull. You can also see the interview with the Head of Highways in Lincolnshire, who doesn’t seem able to grasp the point that if you don’t charge for parking, you won’t need as many wardens. He is the epitome of the faceless bureaucrat who doesn’t understand the economic realities facing small business owners. The only point I agreed with him on is that it’s now the responsibility of councillors to have the final say, and they will be doing just that next Monday.

If you live in Lincolnshire, work there or visit the county, and would like to have your say, you can e-mail the chairman of the Highways, Transport and Technology Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Richard Davies. I’m sure he would welcome your views.

Cornish Parking Anger

May 18th, 2011
by Tim Newark.
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Anger in Cornwall about rising parking charges in council-run car parks. More than 5,000 local residents in South-East Cornwall signed a petition against the rise in their area, but Cornwall Council ignored it and doubled the fees in Liskeard, Callington, Saltash and Torpoint. ‘They’re playing into the hands of the big out-of-town superstores, where parking is usually free,’ said one local resident. It is the latest in a series of council car park charge rises in the region that are leaving Cornish taxpayers bothered about their impact on the local economy.

Last year, Newquay car parks raked in just over a million pounds, charging drivers £1.10 an hour or £10.80 for the day. Some local businessmen welcome the charge as they argue it is mainly paid by tourists and makes up for money siphoned away from the area by central government, but so far, Cornwall Council has refused to reveal what this money is spent on. Such swingeing fees certainly encourage locals to shop in supermarkets that provide free parking, rather than using their high street suppliers.

Away from tourist hotspots, hundreds of local beach users have protested against prohibitive parking charges in Gwithian. An extension of parking charge hours into the evening has hit local businesses. ‘It means about 15 to 20 per cent less business, particularly during the early parts of the season,’ said one local cafe owner. ‘People have started to park anywhere else to avoid the fees and by doing so they often block access roads.’

In Redruth, parking charges have gone up by 400 per cent, discouraging visitors to the town and impacting on local shops. Coaches, previously given free parking, are now being charged £10.00. ‘Dick Turpin would be proud of these charges,’ said one opposition councillor. ‘They are daylight robbery.’

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