Hike in Shropshire car parking charges agreed by councillors

The council's cabinet met today to vote on a report which recommended new 'linear' tariffs for car parks and on-street permits.

The new policy will see charges change for the first time since 2012, and unify parking across Shropshire, with all car parks and on-street parking provision sorted into seven bands.

Councillor Steve Davenport, portfolio holder for highways, presented the report to cabinet, saying it was the council's "largest consultation in many years".

He said he and the officers had listened to the many concerns and made changes to the recommendations to reflect the consultation responses.

"This is to provide good quality parking in the county. The money raised from these car parks will go back into car parks or highways in general," he said.

The linear approach means drivers will pay the same for each hour of parking, but this will be capped at eight hours in bands four, five and six, as well as Raven Meadows multi-storey in Shrewsbury, which is to be extended to 24-hour opening under the proposals.

'Shrewsbury-centric'

On-street parking in Shrewsbury - the only zone in band one - will rise 56 per cent from £1.60 per hour to £2.50. The hourly fee in band two - the Quarry Swimming & Fitness Centre, St Austin's Street, Bridge Street and Raven Meadows, all in Shrewsbury, and on-street parking in Ludlow - will be £1.80 per hour.

Band three, four, five and six will have hourly rates of £1, 70p, 50p and 30p respectively, while band seven zones are free.

Much Wenlock Councillor David Turner spoke against the report, saying it was "Shrewsbury-centric" and "should not be at the expense of the smaller towns".

He added: "It shows little understanding of the towns in rural areas. What might be right in Market Drayton or Whitchurch is not right for Much Wenlock."

But Councillor Alan Mosley rebuked the suggestion saying the biggest price hike was in fact in Shrewsbury's on-street parking.

Council Leader Peter Nutting said the on-street increase was countered by the new car park charges in Shrewsbury. A four-hour stay in Frankwell will be £2.80 under the hourly pay system as opposed to the current flat rate of £4 for over three hours.

The new strategy follows a 12-week public consultation which ran between July and October last year. Almost 2,500 people made their views known and as a result 22 new and revised proposals were included in the report.

Approval of the scheme also means the hours motorists have to pay for parking will be extended to 8pm from the current 6pm cut-off in band one and two areas, despite fears raised during the consultation that this would put people off attending community group meetings and could harm the night-time economies of the county's major towns.

The cost of installing new signs and equipment to reflect the changes is estimated to cost the council £917,000 by the end of the 2018/19 financial year.

Main points of the new parking policy

• The new policy introduces what is called ‘linear pricing’ across the county, where people pay a set rate for each of the hours they park.

• All of the county’s car parks have been placed into one of seven different pricing bands ranging from £2.50 an hour to free.

• It means it will cost 70p per hour to park at Frankwell in Shrewsbury, with an eight-hour stay working out at £5.60.

• The opening hours in Raven Meadows multi-storey car park in Shrewsbury will be extended 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

• The current ‘Pop and shop’ period of no charge will be reduced to five minutes from 15 minutes - in reality reducing the overall pop and shop time from 25 minutes to 15 minutes as regulations say no penalty can be issued until 10 minutes after the permitted parking period is over.