Leading councillors have reviewed parking charges across all council owned car parks across Chichester District and agreed that some prices will reduce, some will stay the same while a small increase – in most cases just 10 pence - will apply to some others.
The annual review was approved by Chichester District Council’s Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday 3 November.
Consultation will shortly begin on the proposed charges and if approved, will come into force from 1 April 2021.
Charges are reviewed regularly and these proposals were also discussed by the Chichester District Parking Forum, which is made up of local businesses, councillors, community groups and other partners.
This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the council will not be running the free Christmas Park and Ride service from Chichester College, but will instead be offering the following incentives to assist with social distancing, help shoppers and support local businesses during the Christmas period:
- Free parking in the Avenue de Chartres car park each weekend throughout December
- When using the MiPermit app, receive a free hour of parking when choosing two hours within any car park in the district (except Westgate Leisure Centre and Avenue de Chartres) throughout December.
In addition and in response to customer demand, the council will also be looking to trial a part-time season ticket. This will be based on a three-day week and will be offered from 1 April 2021, with usage monitored.
“We review parking charges every year in consultation with the local community to ensure that we are dealing effectively with capacity issues in our higher demand car parks and to help cover the costs of providing each car park,” explains Councillor Tony Dignum, Cabinet Member for Place, Growth and Regeneration at Chichester District Council. “We are also under a duty as part of the council’s fees and charges policy to increase all charges in line with inflation as a minimum each year. The increase proposed is very modest and will help ensure that our parking charges remain competitive with neighbouring towns. The rise will not apply to all tariffs and in fact some of our tariffs will be reducing.
“We recognise that it has been an exceptionally tough year for everyone and so we want to help support both shoppers and local businesses during the festive period by offering some parking incentives during December which we hope will have a positive impact on our high street shopping areas. The incentives we are offering for December both ran over the summer months and were used by more than 23,000 customers across the district and I hope they will be equally as popular during the festive period.
“In addition, we are also continuing free parking for NHS and social health care staff in our Northgate car park until April 2021. We are always looking at ways of improving our service and will be developing further improvements over the coming year.”
