South Wales Evening Post - 2 March 2009
First came council traffic wardens, now here comes a hike in parking charges.
Increases are planned for the 53 car parks in and around Swansea, but council chiefs insist they are keeping them to a minimum and don’t want to saddle motorists with unreasonable extra costs.
And they point out the planned rises are the first for five years.
But the controversial plans have met fierce criticism, with one councillor saying you might as well put up a “Swansea Closed” sign at entrances to the city.
“The council should be encouraging people into the city centre, but the public are now voting with their cars and going to out-of-town shopping centres,” said councillor Robert Francis-Davies.
Under the proposals being put forward to cabinet on Thursday, the cost of parking in city centre car parks will rise by 10 per cent, making an all-day stay £5.50 instead of £5.
The hourly charge for busy suburban car parks in Mumbles, Sketty Lane and Oystermouth foreshore will rise by 25 per cent, with all day parking shooting up 60 per cent — from £2.50 to £4.
The cash-strapped council is desperate to reverse dwindling revenue from parking over the past four years, and faces what it labelled “extreme budgetary pressures” across the board.
It expects a parking revenue shortfall of £750,000 for next year, and this must be addressed.
One of the reasons for the declining revenue is the huge success of the park and ride scheme, which has meant thousands fewer cars coming to the city centre.
Other reasons cited by the authority are the popularity of out-of-town shopping centres, the loss of city car parks like Trawler Road for the new bendy bus scheme, and reduced traffic warden numbers — a situation the council has addressed with the recent introduction of 24 traffic wardens when it took over parking enforcement from the police.
The council also conceded that previous hikes in parking charges had put motorists off and led to a small decline in car park usage, but insists they are the only way to plug the shortfall.
And it’s not just the driving public who’ll be rummaging around for extra change — separate proposals have been drawn up to charge councillors and council staff for parking permits.
The council expects its new raft of charges to net an extra £663,000 — more if the rises for councillors and staff are agreed.
If cabinet rubber-stamps the proposals, the new charges could come into force next month.
Councillor John Hague, cabinet member for the environment, said: “In Swansea, we have managed to put off increasing car parking charges for the past five years.
“Even with the increase, annual costs for parking in the city centre are still at least £200 lower than our competitors.”
Councillor Francis-Davies said: “Higher charges don’t mean higher income.”
He added: “The council haven’t helped themselves by using car parks, what with the bendy bus roadworks, as storage.”
