Meeting documents

Appendix B - Car Park Pricing Review

1 Bath on street Pay and Display

Payment in 10 minute intervals was introduced in 2002. This proposal moves to 15 minute intervals in the inner and outer central zone areas and half hourly intervals in the additional areas around Pulteney Street and Royal Victoria Park. It is felt that this more closely reflects the current pattern of stay in these areas.

In addition 4 streets are to be moved from the outer to the inner central zone; Queens Parade, Queens Parade Place, Gay Street and the lower part of Walcot Street south of Beehive Yard. These areas are a similar distance from the centre to other streets in the inner zone.

1.1 Central Zone

It is proposed that time bands are altered from 10 minute to 15 minute intervals.

i) Inner Central Zone

The most popular length of stay is half an hour and this is to be increased by 10p.

ii) Outer Central zone

As for the inner zone the cost of parking for half an hour has increased by 10p; at present the most popular length of stay in this zone is 50 minutes; current cost £1.00. The proposal will reduce the length of time available for £1.00 to 45 minutes. The next most popular stay is the maximum allowed of 2 hours and this will increase by just 10p.

1.2 Additional Areas around Pulteney Street and Royal Victoria Park

It is proposed to alter the time band from ten minute to half hour intervals with an additional price for the first 15 minutes. These bays are further from the centre and here it is felt more appropriate to increase the first time band from 10 minutes to 15 minutes and then extend the time band to 30 minutes.

The 15 minute interval will help shoppers get to and from local shops and businesses. Again half an hour increases by just 10p and the more popular payment of £1.00, which currently purchases 1hour 40 minutes, will now purchase 1hour 30 minute, a small reduction in time.

Additional Areas around Pulteney Street and Royal Victoria Park

Where parking is permitted for up to 4 hours each additional half hour will be charged at 30 pence.

2 Residents' permits

The price for residents' permits in the central zone has remained at £60.00 since at least 1997. The prices for zones 1-9 have remained at £50.00 since the first zone was established in 2000. The introduction of decriminalised parking regime has improved enforcement of the zones considerably. Currently central zone permit holders are restricted to parking in three named streets whereas residents in zones 1-9 can park in any street within the zone. It is planned to alter the central zone conditions to remove this restriction as part of the introduction of electronic permits in the autumn.

It is proposed to increase permit prices in line with other parking charges except for business permits where it is proposed to introduce a differential between these and residents' permits.

Central zone

Zones 1-9

Currently `Landlord' Permits are available for those whose business involves visiting properties within a number of zones, usually landlords or landlords' agents or maintenance contractors. These cost £350 for access to between 1 and 3 zones and £1,000 for all zones.

There are likely to be changes to visitor permits as the introduction of the Parkmobile electronic system allows the move to a number of hours of parking rather than days. This would have considerable advantages for residents who receive a large number of short visits.

3 Bath Off-Street Car Parking

Charges apply between 8.00am and 7.00pm, Monday to Saturday with a different charging regime on Sunday and Bank Holidays. Overnight parking remains free between 7.00pm and 8.00am, the following morning.

When these charges were last increased in July 2002 no fall off in use was detected. The proposed increase is 10% with the exception of Charlotte Street where the increases range from 6% to 8%. The aim is to introduce pay-on-foot for Avon Street in February 2006 followed by Charlotte Street and the other main car parks early in the next financial year. This will help shoppers who may currently feel under pressure to hurry back to their cars.

The only change to time bands is for Sundays and Bank holidays where the current choice of 2 options is being increased to 4.

3.1 Off-Street Long Stay

Avon Street

Ham Gardens/ Manvers Street

Charlotte Street

3.2 Off-Street Short Stay

Kingsmead Square/ Saw Close/ Broad Street/ Cattle Market

3.3 Sports and Leisure Centre

An additional 15 minute charge is being introduced to help people who are picking up passengers from the leisure centre. This will particularly help parents with children who need to park while going into the centre to collect them.

3.4 Sundays and Bank Holidays all Bath city centre car parks

The time bands have been altered to allow a cheaper short stay.

3.5 Claverton Street

Monday to Saturday

Here there is a suggested change from 3 hours to 2 hours to give more opportunities for local shopping rather than providing cheap city centre parking.

Sunday and Bank Holidays

4 Coach and Lorry Park

Prices were not increased in July 2002; the proposed prices seem more in line with coach parks elsewhere. This is one instance where reducing charges on Sundays and Bank Holidays charge seems unnecessary to encourage business.

5 Season tickets - Bath

All prices given are for annual tickets; monthly and quarterly tickets are available at proportional cost.

Currently the season tickets in Avon Street and Manvers Street car parks provide a saving of 40% over pay-as-you-go; this differential is maintained in the new prices. The differential for Ham Gardens, currently 66%, is reduced slightly to 62%. The current saving for Charlotte Street is 55% and this is to be reduced to 49%; it has been the intention to gradually reduce the advantage to season ticket holders in this car park to encourage the use of park and ride by commuters in order to free up more space for tourists and shoppers. Assuming a 46 week working year this is still only £17.40 per week for Monday-Friday or just under £20.00 to include Saturday and Sunday. The price for a reserved space in Charlotte Street car park is very close to the pay-as-you-go price reflecting the value of a reserved space.

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6 Keynsham Car Parks

Evenings and Sundays remain free

Charges, which apply Monday to Saturday between 8 am and 6 pm were introduced in November 1997, and were increased in July 2002. Although the price increase is more than the overall 10% target this is necessary in order to have simple payments rather than odd pennies and to make up the deficit due to the removal of charges for St. Johns car park.

Season tickets have recently been introduced for Keynsham long stay car parks and these will be increased in proportion.

7 Keynsham Residents Permits