BCP's cabinet to be told to put up parking charges again

A group of councillors made up of people from Labour, Green, Lib Dem and Conservatives will tell BCP Council's administration to increase parking charges in line with inflation.  

Each party bar the Conservatives are in favour of the rise, just months after another price rise across the conurbation at an average of five per cent per car park.  

Labour’s Sue Aitkenhead, leading the group of cross-party councillors, said the proposal has been looked at “in-depth” and said an inflationary rise of charges would be “appropriate at this time”. 

Old prices in Madeira Road car park (Image: Sam Sheldon)

Conservative councillor John Beesley said rises to the charges are “easy, almost the lazy way” of making more money. 

He added: “Generally, in business, I don’t have too much of a problem with that. But I think there are other things we should be looking at as well as putting up prices in line with inflation.” 

Cllr Beesley added the “flagging” Bournemouth town centre “needs all the help it can get” for the businesses – suggesting parking rises will not do the town centre any good. 

Conservative leader Phil Broadhead added: “The decision to increase car parking services with inflation across the whole of our car parks just isn’t very strategic in my mind.” 

But Green councillor Kate Salmon disagreed. She said parking charges rising with inflation is “very fair” and added: “We want to encourage people into our town centres but we don’t have to encourage them to come in a car.” 

Bournemouth councillor John Beesley is against the proposed hike

In April, parking charges were increased by an average of five per cent after senior officers calculated it could generate an extra £2.5m in revenue this financial year. 

And that increase followed the council’s axing of all 20, 30 and 40-minute stays in Bournemouth and Poole’s car parks. 

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

The group of councillors will also tell BCP Council’s cabinet to look at the possibility of introducing an option to pay for parking in advance (such as on the council’s website) and to ensure enough parking wardens are outside schools to avoid bad parking. 

The recommendations will be put to BCP Council’s cabinet at a later date and if approved would likely come into play from April in line with the financial year.