Increasing Chichester parking charges ‘a further deterrent to visitors’

Prices at pay and display car parks operated by Chichester District Council rose back in April in line with inflation.

An annual review of parking charges was approved by cabinet members on Tuesday and the proposed changes will be put out to consultation before coming into effect in April 2021.

With no free Christmas park and ride service operating this year, the council will instead throughout December be offering free parking at Avenue de Chartes each weekend and those using the MiPermit app will receive a free hour of parking when choosing two hours within any car park in the district excluding Westgate Leisure Centre and Avenue de Chartres.

From April, some pay and display charges would rise in line with the target rate of inflation of two per cent.

The council would also increase season ticket prices and introduce part-time season tickets on a trial basis for x-roving customers.

The changes would see a small rise in charges of up to two hours or longer at Avenue de Chartres, Basin Road, Cattle Market, Northgate and Westgate car parks.

At the city’s short stay car parks (Orchard Street, St Cyriacs, South Pallant, East Pallant, Market Ave / St John’s, Market Road, Market Ave, New Park and Cawley Priory) charges would go up between up to one hour and up to three hours, but would be reduced on stays between up to four hours and up to six hours.

Charges at Little London, Baffins Lane would stay the same.

The price for up to eight hours at Midhurst’s Grange Road will go up.

Stays up to three hours or longer will be more expensive at the Midhurst’s Post Office and North Street car parks as well as Petworth’s Pound Street, Northern Crescent in the Witterings and East Street in Selsey.

Pay and display charges at Bosham Lane, Bosham and Bracklesham Lane, Bracklesham, would not change.

At Tuesday’s meeting a letter from mayor of Chichester Richard Plowman was read out opposing the changes, warning that many retailers were ‘on the knife edge’.

He said: “Increasing the prices is yet a further deterrent to visitors coming to the city centre or high street when they can get most of what they need online and using out of town shopping with free parking.”

After the meeting, Tony Dignum, cabinet member for place, growth and regeneration, said: “We review parking charges every year in consultation with the local community to ensure that we are dealing effectively with capacity issues in our higher demand car parks and to help cover the costs of providing each car park.

“We are also under a duty as part of the council’s fees and charges policy to increase all charges in line with inflation as a minimum each year. The increase proposed is very modest and will help ensure that our parking charges remain competitive with neighbouring towns. The rise will not apply to all tariffs and in fact some of our tariffs will be reducing.

“We recognise that it has been an exceptionally tough year for everyone and so we want to help support both shoppers and local businesses during the festive period by offering some parking incentives during December which we hope will have a positive impact on our high street shopping areas. The incentives we are offering for December both ran over the summer months and were used by more than 23,000 customers across the district and I hope they will be equally as popular during the festive period

“In addition, we are also continuing free parking for NHS and social health care staff in our Northgate car park until April 2021. We are always looking at ways of improving our service and will be developing further improvements over the coming year.”