Letter: Car Park Charge Hike Executed With Too Little Debate

Published on: 25 Jun, 2022
Updated on: 25 Jun, 2022

Castle Car Park

From: Martin Elliott

In response to: Council Set To Agree ‘Huge’ Increases In Taxi Fares

The hike in taxi fares announced in March sounds like the fiasco of Guildford town centre car parking. Do the council and its officers really “consult” or negotiate?

“Shoppers”car parks (3-hour min payment) suddenly appeared a couple of years ago. There was some justification for increasing the time people want to shop, but no real evidence. It was introduced in a month with little publicity and lots of complaints of confusion.

What was the overall result? There was no attempt to answer, because of Covid.

This year, again with few council discussions, or proposed alternatives, and only consultation with business organisations, the car park fees have increased from 25 per cent to 40 per cent.

The simplistic reason given at council is that the usage has dropped that much, and given the same usage rate this increase is necessary to restore the income level. But will this work? Will usage stay the same, or because of the increase will it drop further? There was no impact assessment of any sort in council papers.

Why is it important? Because car parking was the biggest revenue stream for GBC, higher than property revenue or even council tax.

Despite the “competency” of councillors and the council officers, it seems strange they don’t want to share the logic and risk of such decisions.

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