Town centre parking charges frozen

With the Free After 3 initiative coming to an end in two weeks’ time and free parking on Saturdays ending in December, a proposed increase in parking fees has been shelved.

A report presented to councillors this week conceded that bringing the two free parking deals to an end would come as a blow to people visiting the town centre regularly and said that keeping charges at their current level would help to offset that disappointment.

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Parking services manager Martin Beard, who penned the report, said that the proposed price increase of ten per cent for both on-street and off-street parking, which was rubber-stamped following a previous report in July, would have brought £30,000 over the coming year into council coffers.

But he added: “The timing of the report coincided with the withdrawal of some of the funding for the current free parking offers in the town centre.

“Accordingly, in the interest of maintaining support of the town centre businesses, this report recommends the deferment of the proposed increases and that the issue is revisited prior to the financial year commencing April 2011.”

Cllr Richard Russell, the council’s Cabinet member for town centres, backed the deferral this week, concluding that a price hike would not help town centre businesses, particularly in the run-up to the Christmas period.

He said: “The authority has to perform a very fine balancing act— gaining revenue to support the work of the Parking Service while also acknowledging the needs of the town centre traders.

“This year we have seen real results in the town centre—an increase in both footfall and the launch of new businesses.

“The authority’s own initiatives, such as the Business Vitality Grants and the Shop Local Scheme, are also playing their part.

“So it makes sense to defer any proposed increases in street parking and revisit it at a later date.”

On proposing the price hike two months ago, Mr Beard said that the rise would help to discourage long-stay parking and make more spaces available for short stay shoppers and business users. But he conceded that some groups, including Rotherham Chamber of Commerce, had lobbied to keep charges low.

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