Parking charges increase at twice the rate of inflation
NOTTINGHAM City Council has increased charges for some city centre car parks by more than twice the rate of inflation.
Parking for two hours at Broadmarsh and Fletcher Gate car parks has gone up by almost 13 per cent – from £3.10 to £3.50.
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Broadmarsh Car Park
Meanwhile, Trinity Square car park has gone up nearly nine per cent – £3.50 to £3.80.
Last November, the council raised prices at all three by more than 10 per cent.
And charges at Trinity Square were increased again in April. This means two hours' parking there has gone up by 35 per cent in 13 months.
The rate of inflation stood at 5.2 per cent when the latest increases were implemented on Friday, November 11.
The move has been criticised by city council Conservative leader Georgina Culley.
"The economic climate is not good and I would have thought this was the most inappropriate time to increase car parking charges," she said.
"In view of the fact that they were increased a year ago and in one case in April, then it's inappropriate to do it at this time."
She added that retailers and citizens could feel the pinch as a result.
"I would have thought this could have been left until next spring to see what the economic situation was," she said.
Parking at Nottingham Castle car park in Canal Street is set to increase by 20p for a two hour stay.
However, the Ice Arena car park in Brook Street has been reduced from £2.50 to £1.
Last Monday, the council introduced charges for parking on city centre streets on Sundays for the first time and extended charging hours until 8pm during the week.
Following objections from religious groups to the Sunday charges, the council has given discounts for people attending churches and faith groups.
Councillor Jane Urquhart, council portfolio holder for transport and planning, said: "The city's car parks provide a useful income to the council which is especially vital in these difficult economic times.
"However, we have to keep the prices at an affordable and competitive level. Not only do we face competition from other operators, we have to balance our parking against the backdrop of having one of the best integrated public transport networks of any city in the country."
For a full list of parking charges, including rates over two hours, go to www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/parking.
52 Comments
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by hols1
Tuesday, November 29 2011, 10:41AM
“Well there have been several times when I haven't gone into town when I would have done usually due to the parking charges on Sundays and after work - and that's just me. Let's see how this affects already struggling businesses and Christmas shopping. All it's doing is pushing people away. What good is that for a City that wants and needs to flourish? How is that going to increase income for the Council?
I am really struggling to understand the purpose to these changes and what addition it is supposed to bring to businesses, customers, the Council and to our City.”
by FormerlyW
Tuesday, November 22 2011, 5:34PM
“No argument there, Simon: apart from the model shop to buy gifts for various small relatives, Broadmarsh really has little to recommend it at this point. However, I don't think its decline can be blamed on the Council, since the Victoria Centre lives in exactly the same regime, and, as you say, presents a much more attractive range of shops. The difference then comes down to the attitudes of the owners of these competing facilities, with Westfield seemingly happy to let Broadmarsh slide into oblivion.”
by Paulage
Tuesday, November 22 2011, 5:29PM
“oh and another thing, as we did last year, we shall do again this year,.. when we visit the inlaws we'll visit the trafford centre in manchester, huge amount of stores and free parking... it makes Nottingham City centre look like a joke, you can't even compare the two for value and appeal!!!”
by Paulage
Tuesday, November 22 2011, 5:27PM
“Why on earth should "religous" groups be discounted on parking charges?!?! That means, that as an atheist, I'm being discrimated against!!!!
Surely the whole idea for notts should be to encourage people in to nottingham to spend spend spend... what good is it pushing the parking prices up and only offering discounts to misguided cronies?!?!”
by _Simon
Tuesday, November 22 2011, 5:07PM
“I can assume FormerlyW that I am not anti-nottingham having lived here all my life, my point was more anti-increasing car park charges in a derelict shopping centre such as Broadmarsh.
I shop in Nottingham most weekends and usually go to Victoria centre as it has better shops, I decided to go to Broadmarsh this time and will never do so again.
It is instead the council who seem determined to cut their noses off to spite their face, drivers being pushed to out of town centres will only see more shops fail and see the council try to claw back even more revenue from the ever reducing pool of car parking thus perpetuating the decline of Nottingham as a whole”