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16
Jul
Highways chief responds to plea for free parking in North Yorkshire
No changes are currently planned for free parking arrangements in North Yorkshire’s towns, the county’s highways chief has said.
Cllr Malcolm Taylor, who took over as executive councillor for highways on North Yorkshire Council in June, said the council was currently developing a “parking principles” plan after inheriting “a variety of different parking policies” from district councils.
However, he said there were no plans to change free parking arrangements in the county at this time.
The move comes after Cllr Keane Duncan, who Cllr Taylor replaced as highways chief, described parking charges as a “tax on each and every shopper”.
In a question to Cllr Taylor, he said:
It’s very tough right now for North Yorkshire’s town traders. They face constant competition from the supermarkets with free parking, out of town shopping centres with free parking and, of course, online shopping where you don’t even leave home never mind pay to park.
Parking charges can act as a deterrent to trade. A tax on each and every shopper, who often by necessity travels by car.
With support for our traders absolutely key, can you give an assurance that the free parking currently available in a number of North Yorkshire towns will be protected and, if so, in the spirit of fairness, can you confirm when free parking might be made available in towns currently without it?
Cllr Keane Duncan.
In April, Cllr Duncan said the council was preparing a new county-wide parking strategy which aimed to support local businesses and be fairer for motorists — including addressing anomalies where parking is free in some towns but not others.
Cllr Duncan, who was executive councilor for highways at the time, said the strategy aimed to consider "ways we might be able to expand free parking to more towns".
However, in response to the question at today's full council meeting, Cllr Taylor said “no changes” to current arrangements were planned.
He said:
Officers have been developing a parking principles document that will form the policy framework for parking across the county, setting out a broad range of high level principles that aims to reduce the complexity that currently exists.
The parking principles document forms the first stage of a three-stage approach, which will also see the adoption of more specific county-wide policies to provide more consistency in line with the principles as well as the rollout of local area action plans to deliver local solutions to parking problems.
The parking principles document was considered by members of the transport and economy overview and scrutiny at their meeting last Friday (July 11) and is due to be considered for adoption at the executive at a future date.
Within the draft parking principles, there is a recognition that parking both paid for and free needs to be managed in such a way to support the vitality and attractiveness of town centres while also recognising that there needs to be a fair and balanced approach across the county.
The consideration of parking incentives is something that will be looked at as part of the local area action plans and, at this stage, no changes to current arrangements are proposed.
Details of the new parking strategy come as the authority increased on and off-street parking tariffs by 10% in a move which could bring in almost £2 million in extra income.
The authority is also looking to make £2.5 million improvements to its car parks, including installing new solar-powered parking machines which will accept card, cash and app payments.
Other proposals include a bolstering of parking enforcement to keep contraventions down to an acceptable level.
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