Huge price increases to stay in Bristol City Council’s car parks and city centre on-street spaces have been approved – with some fees doubling. Cabinet members agreed the rises on Tuesday, October 4, saying they were necessary to encourage people to use public transport, walk and cycle.
But the changes are expected to persuade as few as one in 10 drivers to leave cars at home while bringing an extra £1.6million a year into council coffers, a report to cabinet said. The biggest hikes are for longer stays, with four hours on-street going up from £6 to £12, while one-hour stays remain at £4 with the aim of supporting shops and leisure activities with quicker turnover.
Off-street car park charges for shorter stays will generally increase by two-thirds from £1.50 to £2.50 an hour, with parking up to four hours now costing £10 in total instead of £6 at present, making it the most expensive for a major city outside London, and all-day stays up from £13.50 to £18, cheaper only than Manchester and Cardiff. This will affect Trenchard Street, West End, Temple Gate, Portwall Lane, The Grove, Redcliffe Parade, Mardyke Wharf, Lower Guinea Street and College Street car parks.
Read more: Ashton Court Estate car park charges shot up from £1.20 per day to £1 for one hour
The new prices will also apply at the Maritime Heritage Centre, although motorists can also stay here for five hours for £12.50, but the SS Great Britain visitor discounts will be scrapped, with parking set to cost £5 instead of £3. Bristol First car park allows stays up to four hours, which will rise similarly from £6 to £10 before 6pm when permit holders only are allowed.
Fees will double from 50p to £1 an hour at district car parks Diamond Street, Hereford Street, Little Paradise, Sheene Road, Brunel Lock. Charles Place, McAdam Way and Oldfield Place in line with recent increases to on-street pay-and-display tariffs in the adjacent Residents’ Parking Scheme (RPS) area. The report said Queen Square and Brunswick Square charges will mirror the £3-an-hour on-street tariff because it is “difficult for customers to distinguish between on- and off-street spaces”.
All the changes will come into force in January or February and do not require consultation, unlike a second phase of proposed increases at Frog Lane and Wapping Wharf car parks where the pricing structure is out of kilter. The plan is to bring Frog Lane in line with College Street, and Wapping Wharf to match Maritime Heritage Centre, to “make our charges more transparent, more consistent and easier for the public to understand”, but this requires the authority to seek the public’s views because it means changing a traffic regulation order rather than a direct uplift.
Permit and pay-and-display charges in RPS areas are not affected by the changes, which the report said may disproportionately affect older people, pregnant women and new parents. Labour cabinet member for transport Cllr Don Alexander told the meeting: “The increase reflects the inflationary costs that impact the provision of parking and also our enforcement function.
“We make increases based on our transport policy, and our policy is that we want driving not to be a cheap way of coming into the city, we want to encourage people to use other modes. Bus fares have gone up and we want to make our park-and-rides more competitive, and we are working on more bus prioritisation and active travel measures, so we are making that shift.
“We want to encourage shopping and leisure activities by offering short-stay parking.” The full list of increases is here.
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