Parking charges to increase at some Shropshire Council car parks
Motorists parking at some Shropshire Council’s car parks and on-street parking areas will see an increase in fees at the end of the month.
Under the plans – approved by the council’s Cabinet in July 2022 following a public consultation – the majority of charges in Shropshire Council-run car parks are set to rise by between 10p and 20p per hour, with many car parks remaining free of charge.
The planned fees were approved by Cabinet and full Council in February 2022 as part of the proposed fees and charges to be applied by Shropshire Council in 2022/23. The required statutory consultation has now been completed, with eight objections received.
There are seven bands of car parks and on-street parking areas managed by Shropshire Council, with bands 1 to 6 currently being chargeable, and band 7 being free.
The new pricing levels from Monday 31 October for each band are below:
Band 1 – £2.80
Band 2 – £2.00
Band 3 – £1.20
Band 4 – 80p
Band 5 – 60p
Band 6 – 40p
Richard Marshall, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways and regulatory services, said:
“Due to an increase in the rate of inflation and the cost of managing and maintaining our car parks and on-street parking areas, there will be small increases to some of our parking charges.
“We do appreciate that people are facing financial pressures at the moment, and we have sought to reduce the increases as much as possible. However, to not increase charges at all would mean having to cut other essential services that the council provides.
“This will be the first increase in parking charges since the existing fees were introduced more than three years ago, and many other councils have raised charges annually in the same time period.
“The current charges were introduced between November 2018 and February 2019. In that time inflation has risen significantly, as have operational costs, but the council is receiving the same level of parking income – and can no longer continue to subsidise the maintenance and operation of car parks from other budgets.
“However, even with these changes, many car parks will continue to be free, and many will cost just 40p an hour. And even with a small increase, our prices will continue to compare favourably with many other parts of the country.”
By law, any surplus money Shropshire Council receives from car parking over and above the cost of providing and administering it must be used for the benefit of road users.
Any surplus generated from these proposals would be put towards improvements to car parks and any further surplus money would be used to fund public transport services, road improvements projects and environmental improvement.
Meanwhile, a proposed separate review of Shropshire Council’s Parking Strategy was discussed by councillors on the Place Overview Committee on 29 September 2022, and will now be considered by Cabinet.
