Protecting council services by increasing income from parking

In order to help West Berkshire Council meet the financial savings required to deal with the pressures on public finances nationally, a new Sunday parking charge is being proposed.

The new proposals would see a £1.00 charge introduced in the Council’s Newbury car parks on a Sunday. As with the rest of the week, there would also be a charge of £1.00 after 6pm on a Sunday.

Many neighbouring towns such as Basingstoke and Reading already charge for parking on a Sunday. The charges there are similar, or in some cases more expensive, than those proposed for Newbury.

David Betts, West Berkshire Executive Councillor for Highways and Transport said: “These plans will bring Newbury in line with many of our near neighbours who already have similar arrangements. We have already done a lot of work in reducing costs so I hope that the increased income will go some way to helping the Council’s overall financial position.”

The plans will be considered at a full Council meeting on Thursday 22 September.

How does the £1 after 6pm work. I park at 5:30 say and put £2.00 in the machine, am I covered then. Same scenario on weekdays.
What will be the extra cost in greenmeanies to ensure we don't abuse the system.

and the point of the BID is......

Quoted from Muddler

and the point of the BID is......

Nothing to do with helping settle WBC's financial problems.

Quoted from brian

How does the £1 after 6pm work. I park at 5:30 say and put £2.00 in the machine, am I covered then. Same scenario on weekdays.
What will be the extra cost in greenmeanies to ensure we don't abuse the system.

Same way as the evening charge has always worked up until now on the other days.  Pay for the number of hours that you require up until 18:00 and £1 extra at the same time.  So on Sunday you would put £2 in the machine if you arrived before 18:00 and wanted to stay until after 18:00, regardless of what time you arrived.

I like it's simplicity.

Drive everyone to the retail parks on the second busiest shopping day of the week, make a trip to the farmers market even more expensive, and add to the cost of a cinema trip. And due to the earlier price-fixing collusion going on between WBC and Standard Life, it would seem this will have to apply to Parkway too!

Trebles all round

Yes, I just see it as another reason not to go to Newbury in my car.  At least there will be plenty of parking spaces.

Quoted from Muddler

I like it's simplicity.

Drive everyone to the retail parks on the second busiest shopping day of the week,....

I think the retail park at the top of the hill has shot itself in the foot with its popularity. I avoid it like the plague at the weekend due to the queues to get in and park. A nightmare

Now I am confused. This is the report to be voted on by all councillors tomorrow night. I thought they'd pulled it?

Either way, it's interesting stuff. Three points stand out for me.

WBC say they expect 20% reduction in car park use on Sundays if they charge.
They want to target shopworkers because Parkway charges for Sundays.
None of this is based on what local people want, it's based on what other towns do and what a private car park is intending to do.

http://decisionmaking.westberks.gov.uk/documents/s9679/Revised%20Parking%20Charges.pdf

Anyway it doesn't matter....it's a 5 min walk from Sainsburys free car park to Parkway. 2 hours free I think?

The figures being quoted for income from charging on sunday make any sense. The document states that £15,000 will be made from charging on a sunday, assuming that there are 52 sundays in a year, this equates to 288 spaces every sunday being used.

With an availability of 1369 spaces, why do WBC only envisage 21% of them being used?.

With Parkway catering mostly for out-of-towners and hotel residents, most locals would find it easier and cheaper to park in council run car parks.

Quoted from phuct

The figures being quoted for income from charging on sunday make any sense. The document states that £15,000 will be made from charging on a sunday, assuming that there are 52 sundays in a year, this equates to 288 spaces every sunday being used.

With an availability of 1369 spaces, why do WBC only envisage 21% of them being used?.

With Parkway catering mostly for out-of-towners and hotel residents, most locals would find it easier and cheaper to park in council run car parks.

Maybe it's a net figure. They'll have to have more green meanies on patrol, so that needs to be recouped.

What I don't understand is why, if WBC has lost £400k in two years on car parks, but is due to collect £300k a year from Parkway....why are we even talking about Sunday parking charges to raise £15k. It's clearly not necessary.

There are two other options they haven't considered
1. Reduce car parking to 50p an hour.....full car parks, people staying longer etc. It's been a real success in parts of Dorset.

2. Borrow the £150k to cover the shortfall, and pay back from the SLI money.

I'm into a conspiracy theory which goes something like this...

The SLI car park under the new Parkway shopping experience want to charge for the use of their parking seven days a week.

If WBC car parking is free on Sunday then shoppers will park in the WBC car parks rather than pay for using the underground park.

This would not fit in with the SLI car parking budget.

WBC want to help them out so they impose a Sunday charge to ensure that shoppers use the SLI car park.

If they don't, then the parking cash from SLI to WBC will not be forthcoming.

What do you reckon......

I reckon WBC made a huge mistake in the first place when they sold their car parks to SLI for £1 + £300k pa (though originally the figure was higher).

What they should have done was give them a 99 year lease at £300k a year ground rent - with rent reviews at appropriate intervals to keep up with inflation.

Quoted from brian

I'm into a conspiracy theory which goes something like this...

The SLI car park under the new Parkway shopping experience want to charge for the use of their parking seven days a week.

If WBC car parking is free on Sunday then shoppers will park in the WBC car parks rather than pay for using the underground park.

This would not fit in with the SLI car parking budget.

WBC want to help them out so they impose a Sunday charge to ensure that shoppers use the SLI car park.

If they don't, then the parking cash from SLI to WBC will not be forthcoming.

What do you reckon......

No not a conspiracy WBC only doing as they are told

Quoted from blackdog

I reckon WBC made a huge mistake in the first place when they sold their car parks to SLI for £1 + £300k pa (though originally the figure was higher).

What they should have done was give them a 99 year lease at £300k a year ground rent - with rent reviews at appropriate intervals to keep up with inflation.

Yes probably standard good practice for normal good business practice but this is WBC rememeber.