Millions lost in car parking charges during lockdown

Shropshire Council has revealed that its car park income, for the parking it is responsible for in Shrewsbury and other market towns is currently projected to be short by £3.9m, although it is hopeful it can reclaim £2.7m from the Government.

In Oswestry the town council, which runs three of the main car parks, says it expects to have lost more than £200,000 in income.

A Shropshire council spokesman said the authority anticipated it could reclaim £2.7m from the government as part of lost sales, fees and charges income that had not been received due to the pandemic.

"This leaves us with a £1.2m budgetary pressure for car parks," he added.

Oswestry Town Council runs three car parks in the town, Central car park, the Horsemarket and Smithfield Street.

A report to tomorrow’s town council meeting giving councillors an idea of a revised budget for 2020/21 in light of the pandemic says the biggest anticipated loss is £212,000 in car parking income.

Other losses include rental on property of £25,000, public convenience usage, market income, bank interest and £5,000 for its services to the National Association of British Market Authorities.

However, finance officer Roger Dyke said: “To some extent this has been compensated for by cost savings, particularly in staffing costs where a potential £30,000 could be saved by not appointing a project manager for the council for the time being.

“There will also be cost savings on visitor centre operation, youth services, overtime, events cancellation, hanging basket/floral planters, Cae Glas Park maintenance contract and Tourist Information Centre costs.”

Mr Dyke said the council’s balance at the end of March was £2,233,402 – £93,189 higher than thought.

He said the surplus had helped the town council moving in to 2020/21 financial year, as well as covering some of the costs of the pandemic.

That, added to the "cost saving mean balances", would reduce the budget by only £20,262 more than expected over the year.

“Obviously there is still a good deal of uncertainty of what will happen as we move through the year and further lockdowns could further seriously decimate our income therefore it would be prudent to continue to budget very conservatively and look for cost savings wherever possible.,” he said.

"It might also be worth reminding members that the council has an established earmarked reserve of £70,000 for unforeseen losses as we will inevitably see this year.”

Councillors will be asked at tomorrow night’s online meeting to note the revised budget and suggest any cost savings.