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Council car park charges set to increase again
29/06/2023
Councillors will next week consider a recommendation for a 9 per cent hike in fees
The price of parking your car in one of Cherwell District Council’s car parks looks set to go up. Next week the Council’s Executive will discuss a recommendation to raise the price for an hour’s parking from £1.10 to £1.20.
Under the plans the charge to park all day will increase by 50 pence to £5.50. This means those working in town using the Council’s car parks will have to pay around £10 extra every month.
The report justifies the 9 per cent increase saying it is broadly in line with inflation.
No increases are planned for the second and third hour of any stay. The report says this is because “use has declined and is not competitive with alternative car parking offers”.
The extra charges are being targeted at areas where the Council says it has seen increased usage. Addressing the increase in the all-day fee the report says: “long stay car parks are showing increasing demand from increasing numbers of workers returning to the office”.
An increased demand is also noted for the ultra-short stay car parks, where the rate for half an hour will increase by 10 pence to £1.20 and £1.70 for an hour.
The news has come as a disappointment to a number of town centre traders who have been calling for the scrapping of car parking charges, or a free first hour.
Barry Whitehouse runs the Artery Art Shop in Parson’s Street. He said: “It’s more than disappointing. They’re not really reading the needs of the shop or the business owners that are the backbone of the town centre.
“I don’t think it will be received well. Although Cherwell is saying that these parking charges are in line with inflation, our own wages are not in line with inflation and are stagnated. Those of us that are self-employed are probably taking a pay decrease while things are so quiet. It will now cost us more for the privilege of coming into work, where hopefully we’ll get some shoppers, but we may get a further reduction in football if people stay away and go where parking is free.
“It’s a really sore disappointment.”
It is currently more expensive to park in a Cherwell District Council car park than in Aylesbury and Northampton but cheaper than what the reports acknowledges are the “tourist destinations” of Oxford, Stratford and Warwick. In West Oxfordshire car parking is free in all car parks in Witney.
An earlier price increase is noted as not having the desired effect on the income generated for the Council. When a 25 per cent increase from 80p to £1 per hour was implemented in 2021 usage of the car parks fell. The report says: “The 25% rise only produced a rise of 15-17% in income. This was an indication that price changes should be handled carefully.”
Mr Whitehouse added: “They should review the parking objectively instead of seeing it solely as a source of revenue. They should see it as an integral part of a relationship with the shopper, the retail parks and the town centre. We should all be working together.
“If the Tesco retail park, the Gateway Retail Park, and every supermarket out of town has free parking, there needs to be a slight balancing and levelling of the playing field here. Instead of increasing the costs they could have decreased the first hour, leading to increased usage. Or give the first hour free. If they needed an increase to create their revenue income put it in shorter increments after your first free hour.
“It’s really concerning that some business owners are going to struggle and shoppers are going to struggle. We’re not out of the cost-of-living crisis yet.
“I don’t think it’s a wise move.”
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam
Ed Horton On 29/06/2023 at 3:08 pm
I shall download the NCP app. It will be cheaper to use NCP than council car parks for all day users. Recently I remember reading that CDC was considering closing some of its car parks because they were under-used. They’ll be used even less now.