Re-think! Parking on the High Street Ojay McDonald, Research and Policy Manager Association of Town & City Management

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 2011Examples >300,000Liverpool, Birmingham 250, ,999Sheffield, Plymouth 200, ,999Northampton, York 150, ,999Ipswich, Stafford 100, ,999Blackpool, Swindon 70,000-99,999Stratford-Upon-Avon, Bridgend <70,000Guisborough, 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 StrategyPlan for Car Parking Provision

Questions?