PLANS to introduce charges at two council-run car parks in Fishponds have been dropped.
City councillors voted down the proposed new £1 an hour charge for ten car parks outside the city centre, including Beechwood Road and Stoke View Road, at a meeting of the transport policy committee in September.
The charges were part of a wider raft of changes. Some were approved, including more than doubling the cost of vehicle permits in residents parking zones, from £56 to £124, although 30-minute free parking for visitors to areas covered by an RPZ has been retained.
Charges for some city centre pay and display car parks will rise – but proposals to massively increase evening fees in car parks were scrapped, after concerns were raised about the impact of the move on the night-time economy.
The introduction of charges at 10 district car parks was opposed by Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat councillors, with much of the debate focusing on the “immense damage” charges could cause at the Westbury Hill car park, which also serves as the only car park for a nearby GP surgery, two churches and many community groups.
Councillor Caroline Gooch (Lib Dem, Westbury) said: “It would be the only surgery where people have to pay to attend, were it to be implemented.”
Charges at district car parks were initially proposed by the previous Labour administration in early 2023 but despite being agreed in that year’s budget, they were never implemented and were formally deferred this year.
Green Cllr Rob Bryher (St George West) said he supported the charges as part of a move to “shift people out of their cars”, adding: “I go to Oldbury Court by bike along the Railway Path, or by bus.”
‘Ridiculous’ evening charges dropped
The Bristol Association of Restaurants, Bars and Independent Establishments had warned that plans for a “ridiculous” hike in evening charges, raising the price of parking from 6pm until midnight from £4 to £15, would “close venues”.
Council officers will investigate creating a “workplace parking levy”, which could see drivers or their employers charged £20 per week to park on business premises.
The charge would raise up to £10 million a year to improve public transport and would affect roughly 9,000 employees who can currently park at their workplace free of charge.
Another £4.7m will be available to the council from April of next year to subsidise bus services using money from drivers who have to pay to bring their vehicles into the city’s Clean Air Zone. Councillor have to agree which services should be subsidised by November.
The committee is also due to set up a working group to tackle pavement parking.
By Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporting Service