Will Town and Community Council pay for free parking to entice shoppers into town?

Town councils in Powys could be asked to fork out for free car parking in a bid to entice shoppers into town centres in the run up to Christmas.

At a meeting of the council’s Economy, Residents and Communities scrutiny committee on Monday, September 9, councillors received a report outlining a number of recommendations made by council officers following the controversial car park and charging review.

One proposal from the review is around the occasional free parking for “events” in Powys such as on weekends in the run up to Christmas.

The report explained that allowing this to go ahead would be a decision for highways, transport and recycling portfolio holder, Liberal Democrat Cllr Jackie Charlton.

But only if the departmental finances would allow it.

At the meeting Liberal Democrat Cllr Raiff Deviln said:  “The removal of the free parking concerns me greatly as we need to know what the economic impact will be against a trend of people going to major towns to access free parking and retail parks.”

Traffic and travel manager, Tony Caine told councillors that Brecon Town Council are paying for free parking at a car park in Brecon.

Mr Caine said:  “They have effectively hired one car park from us for every Saturday to offer free parking to visitors of Brecon up to the end of next March.”

He added that Brecon Town Council had shows that it “does not have to be” the county council offering free parking.

Conservative Cllr Karl Lewis asked whether council staff had “bounced” this idea around with his nearest town council, Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn Town Council.

Clllr Lewis also wanted to know whether any talks had taken place around free car parking in the run up to Christmas.

Mr Caine said: “We have not done that expressly.

“A lot of town councils are familiar with what we do as they hire car parks for other events that they are involved with.”

He pointed out that the Back Lane car park had been hired by the town council as part of Newtown Food Festival. Mr Caine added that if council finances did not allow for free parking in the run up to Christmas, town councils would be notified.

Chief officer for place, Matt Perry stressed: “We have not said no to Christmas parking, we are mindful that it does encourage people to come in, so we have left it open depending on what the budget situation is.”

One major issue with asking town councils to foot the bill for free parking is that they are also being squeezed financially and the idea could ultimately see Council Tax precepts increased to cover the costs.

Committee chairwoman, Liberal Democrat Cllr Angela Davies: “It’s all very well saying town councils can pay the car parking fee, but town council’s don’t have big pots of money.

“This means effectively residents are paying twice, so that’s not a simple answer.”

Councillors went on to reject the officer’s recommendations on car parking and charges, the report and their comments will go to a future meeting of Cabinet for a decision.