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13
Jan
Harrogate business leader says pay-on-arrival parking is hitting traders
A Harrogate business leader has said changes to parking payment methods in the town are preventing people from staying longer.
North Yorkshire Council introduced a pay-on-arrival system in car parks last year, whereby people enter their vehicle registration numbers and pay for a set amount of time.
Under the previous system, motorists were charged on exit according to how much time they had parked. Both systems are ticketless.
Martin Mann, chief executive of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, said last night (January 12) the move had deterred people from lingering longer than expected and spending money in bars and restaurants because they were worried about getting back to their vehicles before their parking time expired.
Speaking at a chamber meeting attended by leading figures at North Yorkshire Council, he said:
“We are finding that people are not spending as much time in town. They will pay for three hours and then don’t go on to hospitality.”
A sign in Jubilee Car Park
Mr Mann added many people did not realise you could extend parking through the AppyParking app. He also questioned why motorists could pay on exit in other parts of the county, including Scarborough and York, but not Harrogate.
Karl Battersby, the council’s corporate director for environment, said it had implemented the changes because the old parking machines were “falling over, basically”. He added:
We have gone from pay and display to park and stay so it doesn’t require a ticket but you pay for the time you think you need. The reason we did it is a) expedience, because the machines were falling over but also because we had lots of issues with previous kit. It required us to have an onsite presence all the time because the machines were always breaking and people couldn’t get a ticket.
Mr Mann also asked when a decision would be made on the future of AppyParking, the mobile payment method for parking in the Harrogate district, after a council report last month said it planned to introduce a single mobile parking app for the entire county.
The report suggested the council had rejected introducing the National Parking Platform, which caters for different app systems.
But Mr Battersby indicated last night the council was proposing to adopt the system, which caters for a range of apps, in May this year.
He also agreed to consider a suggestion by Mr Mann to improve signage at council car parks in Harrogate to make it clearer parking stays could be extended on AppyParking.
Mr Battersby said the council was replacing 432 car park machines throughout North Yorkshire as part of the new ticketless system, which he said would save £600,000 to £700,000 a year.
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