BCP's car park prices now so high it's 'losing revenue'

Parking fees rose once again in April, taking some one-hour stays up to £2.90 - following on from the axing of 20-, 30- and 40-minute stays in Bournemouth and Poole’s car parks. 

At the time, BCP Council expected the price rises to generate an extra £2.5m in revenue this financial year, which will be put back into council services.

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But opposition leader Phil Broadhead has warned prices are now so high that people are choosing not to use BCP’s car parks, losing the authority money. 

Opposition leader Phil Broadhead (Image: Daily Echo)

He said: “There’s always been criticism that car parking is easy money, in terms of the council putting charges up to earn ever more money. 

“As we know, there is always a tipping point where people will just stop using the car park altogether and income goes down. 

“It looks in many instances that we have reached a tipping point and that people are being put off completely from parking, and therefore income might be going down.” 

Redhill councillor and chair of the overview and scrutiny committee Stephen Bartlett added: “Anecdotally I’ve heard people have stopped using the Pavilion car park because the cost during a show is just prohibitive.  

• Read more: BCP Council car parking fees to rise again this week

“We do need to look at our parking charges and what effect they have got on people using the town centre car parks.”  

Cabinet member for finance Mike Cox said he wanted to see evidence that car parking fees are putting people off visiting the town centre, suggested by both councillors Broadhead and Bartlett. 

He said: “Obviously, we want to see the town centres thrive as much as anybody, but I don’t believe the car parking revenue has gone down, it’s certainly not.”  

BCP Council chief executive Graham Farrant

BCP’s chief executive Graham Farrant suggested bad weather was partly to blame if there was any decline in revenue. 

Mr Farrant said: “It’s probably too early to look at the year as a whole, we’re trying to forecast the rest of the year off the first three months. 

“There are a number of factors to play here: the weather was not good during April, May and June – it was very wet – and we don't know what impact that was.” 

April saw all car parking fees and permit prices increase by an average of five per cent in all council-owned car parks. 

Last year, a council report concluded scrapping short-stay parking charges could earn an extra £500,000 from people buying lengthier parking tickets.