Guildford – One of the Top Ten for Car Park Charges

Published on: 18 Aug, 2017
Updated on: 21 Aug, 2017

A motorist pays to park in North Street

Guildford is one of the top ten towns, outside of London, for car parking revenue. £12.1 million pounds was collected in the financial year ending March 2016, putting it in ninth position, nationally. The revenue total represented a 5% increase over the previous year.

Table published by the Daily Mail

A Daily Mail article published on Tuesday (August 15, 2017) showed which local authorities in England are receiving the highest income from parking charges based on an analysis by Click4reg, a company specialising in personalised number plates.

They reported that overall, parking income for English councils outside London amounted to £906 million, a five per cent increase on 2014-15.

Local authorities across the country are becoming more and more reliant on locally raised revenue as central government funding continues to be cut back. But some are concerned that parking charges could affect the sustainability of local businesses.

Others are concerned that it will make councils themselves act more like businesses, prioritising income streams and relating activity rather than government bodies and a public service, balancing the overall needs of their communities.

A spokesperson for Guildford Borough Council said: “The total figure of £12.1 million includes on-street parking income from Guildford and Waverley boroughs and does not take into account the associated running costs .

“Our charges are comparable with other towns and centres of a similar size. The higher income is due to the number of car parks we operate, and popularity of Guildford as a centre, and not to high charges or penalties.

“The increase between 2014-15 and 2015-16 was due mainly to increased numbers and longer average stays and the surplus from on-street parking pays for Park and Ride to help reduce congestion.

“Our car parks are also a vital support for local businesses and we maintain them to a high standard. We need charges in the town centre that are sufficient to encourage best use of the prime parking spaces for shoppers and visitors.

“Our pricing strategy encourages long-stay workers, shoppers and visitors to use outer car parks and the Park and Ride services to reduce congestion.  Our parking strategy also supports the development  of central surface car parks and the expansion of key ‘interceptor’ car parks on main routes.

“The aim is to intercept traffic before it reaches the town centre and promote the ‘drive to, not through’ principal.  Another aim is to keep the equivalent number of spaces, but in more strategic locations.

“We are also encouraging people to use other means of transport, via sustainable movement corridors, and supporting improved bus, train, cycling and walking facilities.”

Brian Creese a spokesperson for Guildford Labour commented: “Guildford Labour Party recognises the contribution made by car parking revenue to the borough finances, but think the council should not come to rely on such sources of income for basic and essential services.

“Instead, we would like to see the revenue raised from car parking used specifically to encourage and support people to not use their cars to come into central Guildford and more innovative approaches to encourage bus travel. We have already suggested experimenting with making buses free of charge for some services at peak times.

“Similarly, we all know that bicycle lanes are non-existent, patchy or even dangerous at present and major investment is needed to set up decent, usable and safe bike routes.

“Rather than increasing parking in Guildford town centre, we would prefer greater investment in improving the Park & Ride facilities and in general GBC’s energies to be focussed on promoting alternatives to driving into Guildford.

“In this way we can get more people using the town centre, more cheaply, causing less congestion while improving our poor air quality.”

Amanda Masters, general manager at Experience Guildford.

Amanda Masters, general manager at Experience Guildford, the team that cares for the town’s business interests said: “Having had a quick glance at some of our competitive shopping destinations, Guildford is competitively priced. Reading, Kingston, Gunwharf Quays and Brighton all range from £1.40 per to £5 per hour.

“However, parking can be an issue for our retailers. The BID [Businesss Improvement District] has been tasked in our next five-year term to lobby for the parking charges to be frozen so as not to put shoppers off coming into the town.

“Similarly, we are attempting to find a way to bring the £1 evening charge forward to 5pm instead of 6pm. Between 5pm and 7pm on a Thursday evening, the footfall numbers are consistently higher, at that time, than any other day of the week.

“With a clear market to target and the need to support our early evening economy, there is a case for the evening charges to be brought down for that time of day.”

“More spaces would be welcomed by the retailers, but even more so cheaper, even free, on street parking for 30 minutes would be appreciated as “click and collect” grows. This would encourage shoppers to use click, collect and potentially buy something else while they are here, rather than “click and have-it-delivered”!

“The Ringo app is a good idea for shoppers. However, I would ask that GBC consider making it cheaper to use than pay and display to encourage more to use it. If more shoppers paid by Ringo it would save GBC time and money in daily machine collections.

“Lastly, I would urge people to download the Official Guildford App, as it has information on where parking is available and, as long as you are hands-free, will direct the driver the easiest route to the car park, thus saving time searching for a spot and reducing congestion.”

Share This Post