Wiltshire Conservatives increase car parking charges (South West Wiltshire Liberal Democrats)

South West Wiltshire Liberal Democrats <info@swwiltshirelibdems.org.uk>

Wiltshire Conservatives increase car parking charges

December 14, 2010 10:40 AM

Wiltshire Council's 'cabinet' gave the OK to a massive increase in parking charges across the county at its meeting on December 14th.

The total take from parking charges will increase from about £5million to £6.5million.

In the interests of 'harmonisation' towns and villages are divided into four bands. Band 1 is Salisbury, which will have the most expensive parking. Band 2 is Trowbridge and Chippenham, then in Band 3 are the market towns such as Warminster and Westbury, with smaller towns and villages such as Mere and Tisbury in Band 4.

The council has offered band 3 towns the opportunity to 'buy back' their own parking spaces at a cost of £500 per space per year if they wished to offer free parking to shoppers. Similarly Band 4 settlements could lease their car parks from the council by paying all the costs of providing the facility, including rates.

The proposal to introduce Sunday charges across the county has been dropped, with only Salisbury retaining them.

The council is also proposing a more sensible approach to parking on new developments. In the past attempts to discourage people from owning cars by designing out parking have inevitably been unsuccessful and have led to major difficulties for residents.

Residents parking schemes could be introduced where there is a demand for them.

The possibility of introducing a Workplace Parking Levy is also an option the council is keeping open.

The cost of parking all day in Salisbury will go up to £7.20. In Trowbridge the one-hour fee in a short-stay car park will be £1.10, with the long-stay all day charge going up to £5.90. In Westbury or Warminster the equivalent charges are 40p and £5.60.

If Mere decides to take over its two car parks the cost to the village will be £5,600 per year. Tisbury would have to pay £1,840 for the Nadder Close car park.

None of the Band 3 towns are likely to take up the 'buy-back' option as they see it as a WC rip-off. In their response Warminster Town Council said: "The financial focus of the proposals serve to indicate that Wiltshire Council seeks, first and foremost, to use the parking assets of Warminster to raise money for the Unitary Council, irrespective of the damage this may do to the viability of the town. Such a short-term view can be highly damaging. A town that has its commercial viability destroyed by ill-conceived parking policies (in the name of "harmonisation") will not provide income to Unitary Council from parking fees, since no-one will want to visit it."

These sentiments were endorsed by Westbury Town Council, who also claimed they should be in Band 3 as their economy is less strong than other market towns.

However the only concession made by the Cabinet was to Amesbury, where one quarter of parking spaces will remain free for one year.