The Isle of Wight council, controlled by the Island Independents, has proposed eleven different ways that it will become more expensive to park a car on the Isle of Wight.
The council currently earns around £4m a year from car parking on the Island.
Residents of the Isle of Wight have, in the past, proven very sensitive to increases in parking charges, so many will be surprised to read the long list of proposed ways to increase costs for Island car owners.
These proposals are part of cost-cutting and price-increasing proposals.
Summary
OnTheWight has got the full detail below, but in summary the proposals are :-
- Increase parking charges: short-term parking up 20%; long-term up by 10%
- Extending the hours that you have to pay for parking in car parks beyond 6pm, with midnight mentioned
- Blue Badge concession to go from council car parks
- ‘Review’ the 19 currently-free car parks
- Remove free afternoon parking from East Cowes, Cowes, Sandown, Shanklin, Newport and Ventnor
- Remove free parking at The Heights and Medina leisure centres and Moa Place, Freshwater
- Increase on-street parking zones at Newport, Ryde, Shanklin and Sandown.
- Start charging at Appley & Puckpool parks
If they were all to be implemented, the council estimates additional income of £356,000.
Are the proposed options fair?
What do you think of the proposals? Which do you think are justified; which should be dropped and which other ideas could be added?
The official list
| Proposed option | Est. add. income | |
| Tariff car park Increases | £69,000 | |
| Tariffs have not been increased since April 2008. This option assumes a rise of 20% (rounded up) for short stay car parks, all short stay on-street & long stay on-street tariffs up to 4 hours – above 4 hours are rounded up to nearest £1. A rise of 10% (rounded up) for long stay car park tariffs up to 2 hours, with no increase for above 2 hour tariffs. No coach increases. The increase in income allows for economic & tourism downturns and a resistance to parking charge increases – this allows for an overall reduction of 9% parking users. | ||
| Remove free 30min parking at Moa Place, Freshwater | £13,000 | |
| Currently the above car park allows parking for 30 minutes free, subject to obtaining a ticket from the machine. Currently, 82% of users of these facilities are doing so for free) – allowing for a high resistance to charges of 80%, the Authority would generate additional income of £13k based on above tariff increase. New Road, Lake has free 60 mins, but no alternative limited waiting parking available. | ||
| Remove free parking at Leisure car parks (Heights & Medina) | £20,000 | |
| Heights car park currently allows 2 hours free parking – this policy is to be repeated at Medina when charges are introduced. Removing this free element, but in return of free parking with One Card memberships, would encourage sales whilst ensuring income is received from those using the car park for other reasons than using the leisure centres | ||
| Remove free afternoon concession | £14,000 | |
| Six Council car parks operate a weekly concession of free parking between 1pm and 6pm on one weekday – this includes East Cowes, Cowes, Sandown, Shanklin, Newport and Ventnor. Comparisons to weekday afternoons when charges do apply show the free concession costs the Council £14k. | ||
| Re-introduce charges at Appley & Puckpool | £45,000 | |
| Currently it is free to park for 5 hours at both Appley & Puckpool parks, which are located a short distance to the beaches of Ryde. Car parks of similar dynamic (close to beach) suggest reintroducing charges within these locations could generate circa £45k. Charges were previously in place during 2005. | ||
| Review free car parks | £10,000 | |
| Parking Services currently manages 19 free car parks (not including Appley or Puckpool). Many of these would not be cost effective for installing ticket machines and regularly enforcing, but a small number are likely to yield an income for the Authority. These include High Street, Carisbrooke and Pier Road, Seaview. | ||
| Extend chargeable hours | £50,000 | |
| The current hours of charging for parking are from 8am to 6pm. Many authorities charge for parking until midnight, with some having flat rate charges to cover a car park visit after 6pm until the day charges return the next day. Extending the chargeable hours will also encourage further purchases of 200m radius permits. A late shift is regularly undertaken, so any additional enforcement costs would be minimal. | ||
| Additional On-street Pay & Display (Newport) | £20,000 | |
| Currently on-street pay & display charges within Newport are located on the High St, Pyle St, Orchard St, Quay St, Holyrood St and Lugley St which generate annual income of £460k. Further on-street P&D could be introduced on Upper St James’ St and Crocker St, which are both currently limited waiting areas. | ||
| Additional On-street Pay & Display (Other) | £50,000 | |
| Apart from Newport and Esplanades (seasonal except Ryde), the only other on-street charges applied are at St Marys Cowes, Cowes Parade and Yarmouth Common. Areas that could be considered are Ryde, Shanklin and Sandown. | ||
| Remove Blue Badge concession | ||
| Under the blue badge scheme, the national concession applies only to on-street parking. On the Island, this has been extended to include parking within our car parks, which we have no legal obligation to do. According to the Councils “Disability Needs Summary – November 2008”, the number of blue badge holders on the Island was 7,564. As the concession is not just for residents, the number eligible to use our car parks for free will be much higher. Other Authorities are considering removing similar concessions. | £30,000 | |
| Extend seasonal charges to include March | £15,000 | |
| Current seasonal parking charges on Esplanades are from April to October. By extending the "season" to include March, this will ensure that the busy period of Easter is not free parking on seafronts. Easter will fall within March in 2013 & 2016. | ||
| All Island Tourist Permits | £20,000 | |
| Potential now exists to re-introduce the popular tourist permit scheme without returning to the administrative burden previously experienced. This would involve direct selling to tourist either by transferable tickets from the pay & display machines or from period parking option purchased via the mobile phone operator. Further option potentially available from paypoint outlets using same method as Southern Vectis rover tickets. | ||
| Estimates total increase | £287,000 |
