All free parking in city centre could be scrapped (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

All free parking in city centre could be scrapped

7:00am Monday 15th February 2010 in

By Jo Winrow »

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Free on-street car parking spaces in Bradford city centre look set to be scrapped.

The news was immediately condemned by traders as a further body blow in their fight to attract custom.

Only last week a study revealed that the city centre has the second highest proportion of vacant shops in the country.

Bradford is one of the last areas in the region that continues to offer limited free parking bays for shoppers at its centre but the Council’s executive will tomorrow be asked to approve a major review of the system which is expected to lead to free parking being replaced with a time-limited pay and display system in a newly-created ‘city centre zone’.

It is proposed charges will operate from 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday. There would also be two fixed time limits – one hour for the central part of the zone, and two hours for parking in areas that border it.

The first phase of the review, covering the city centre zone and Wapping area, is expected to take nine to 12 months. In Wapping the outline plan is also to remove all on-street limited waiting bays and replace them with long-stay pay and display as the area is mainly used by commuters.

The costs of introducing pay and display machines in the city centre is expected to be £50,000, and a further £25,000 in the Wapping zone, along with £30,000 of annual operating costs, and £10,000 to alter traffic regulation orders.

However, the additional parking income expected to be generated for the Council is £120,000 and £25,000 a year respectively.

In addition the review looks at on-street parking in six other zones – Little Germany, Little Horton, University, Broomfields, St James’s Market and Manningham. It will identify areas where extra on-street parking can be provided, and could include providing extra loading bays and disabled bays.

The Council argues the revisions are necessary to help tailor on-street parking to better suit the needs of businesses and shoppers in the city, as well as improve road safety by preventing congestion caused by unrestricted parking.

But Mary Frame, of Bradford Chamber of Trade, has condemned both the move to scrap free parking in the city centre and to extend the length of time that pay and display is operational for, saying it will “drive people away”. She said: “On-street pay and display currently operates from 10.30am and the idea was to encourage shoppers into the city centre. Changing that to 8am would surely drive people away.

“We should be encouraging people into the city centre and making it easy for them to park here. As for Bradford being one of the last few to offer free parking – I am more than happy for Bradford to remain unique.”

She added that the Chamber of Trade was also keen to see extra loading and disabled parking bays provided.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, the Council’s executive member for environment and culture, said: “A parking review is needed to provide effective management of on-street parking to regulate parking for all users. There has not been a complete review for a number of years.

“A consistent charging policy is an essential element of the review to regulate parking needs of the various users and to ensure that parking facilities support business.”

The Council’s executive takes place at City Hall from 2pm tomorrow. One of the recommendations is for Bradford’s chambers of commerce and trade, as well as the new City Centre Partnership to be consulted during the review.

Comments(69)

Storck says...
7:51am Mon 15 Feb 10

The council can not even get round to marking the road correctly in from of my apartment which lets people park all day for free. This then leads to the bin men not been able to get in to empty our bins, so the chances that they would introduce this correctly are so remote. I am in the city centre.