Re-think! Parking on the High StreetOjay McDonald, Research and Policy ManagerAssociation of Town & City ManagementOjay.McDonald@atcm.org

Concern Over Parking Fees

Anger over parking charges

Backlash at plans to increase parking charges in town

ITV – Jan 2013

Horncastle News – Jan 2013

Parking charge increases across UK spark anger

BBC News – July 2011

Confusion Over Parking Fees

Contradictory views from industry/academic experts. This has been unhelpful for local

and national policy-makers.

The Need for Clarity

ATCM and BPA agreed to develop guidance on car parking through a joint report to help owners support town centres. This guidance takes additional importance in England due

to business rates retention in 2013.

Motorist vs. Town Centre

Conflict between motorists and traditional urban centres are inevitable and common across developed and quickly

developing nations.

Car ownership is around 34.5 million up from 2.5 million in 1952

Cars are nearly always parked, spending only 3-4% of the duration in transit

Impossible for town centres to accommodate all car users

Motorist vs. Town Centre

Car parks are expensive for a number of reasons including:

• They need to be managed

• They have limited lifespans and so need reinvestment

• There is an opportunity cost for alternative uses

Motorist vs. Town Centre

Parking restrictions of various kinds were inevitable to:

• Recover costs

• Change driver behaviour to moderate demand

Have Parking Restrictions become too Restrictive?

This provides understanding of why restrictions are in place. Free parking is clearly not a panacea for town centres. However, we wanted explore any links

between town centre prosperity and parking fees.

Linking Parking Fees to Town Centre Prosperity

Research was led by Springboard Ltd, who interrogated data from Parking Data &

Research International.

Linking Parking Fees to Town Centre Prosperity

90 diverse town centre locations across the UK were explored, examining the cost of off-

street parking for the first two hours.

Some of the factors taken into consideration were:

• Quantity of parking spaces• Amenities within the town centre

• Footfall

Selecting a Sample

Weekly footfall 2011 Examples

>300,000 Liverpool, Birmingham

250,000-299,999 Sheffield, Plymouth

200,000-249,999 Northampton, York

150,000-199,999 Ipswich, Stafford

100,000-149,999 Blackpool, Swindon

70,000-99,999 Stratford-Upon-Avon, Bridgend

<70,000 Guisborough, Barnet

Finding 1

Parking operators are providing quantity of spaces that equates to the footfall levels achieved by each

location.

Finding 2

There is no clear relationship between car parking charges (set by parking owners/operators) and the quality offer of a location with some mid-range and smaller centres potentially over-charging.

Finding 2

Example locations

Finding 3

The mid-range and smaller groupings of centres that charge more than the national average with regards to their offer have suffered

a higher than average decline in footfall for 2011.

Many Caveats

These findings are not conclusive. Other dimensions of the parking offer have not

been taken into account here. Furthermore, there is no definitive casual link between

parking fees and footfall decline.

Long-Term Research Needed

Long-term effort to monitor data will be important to building a strong evidence

base.

What’s Next?

Councils and private owners must be aware of best practice when developing their

parking offer.

This offer must compliment wider planning for the locality and be part of an

accessibility strategy.

National Planning Policy

Local Authority Plan for the area

Town/City Centre Strategy (or Neigbourhood plan covering the town centre)

Transport and Accessbility Strategy

Plan for Car Parking Provision

Questions?