What’s happened to our car park review?

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

A senior Powys county councillor has asked for an update on the long running saga of the car parking review.

Over six months have passed since the cabinet member responsible for car parks Liberal Democrat, Cllr Jackie Charlton, agreed to take another look at the proposals for car parks that came from a cross-party working group of councillors last year.

Car parking fees were increased as part of the 2023/2024 budget by the Liberal Democrat/Labour/Green administration which came into force in April 2023.

But the move has been sternly opposed ever since which led to the working group being set up in the autumn of 2023 to review the fees, as well as other car parking arrangements.

Opposition councillors have wanted to reduce the fees in a bid to get people to start using car parks again so that they visit businesses and shops in the town centres to boost the local economy.

Last September, the review group and council staff brought forward two sets of options for car parks – and a report put before a scrutiny committee recommended that cabinet approve the recommendations from staff as it would “generate income” for the council.

The argument from the council’s financial chiefs is that money from the higher car parking fees is needed to offset budget deficits that occur within the Highways, Transport and Recycling department.

But before a decision was taken in November last year the cabinet said that it would reconsider the findings from the cross-party group.

They said a “focus group” meeting would be organised to “help clearly define” a way forward for the review.

Powys Independent Group Co-leader, Cllr Beverley Baynham, said: “On February 25, I along with a small group of councillors, cabinet members and senior officers took part in a car park review workshop facilitated by Aberystwyth University.

“The idea of this workshop was to find an agreeable solution to car parking issues throughout the county.

“Despite leaving the meeting thinking we had reached some conclusions, we are now almost three months on and there has been nothing forthcoming from the portfolio holder.”

Cllr Baynham added that she had recently visited Scotland and due to her parking experiences there, had come up with an idea for the cabinet to consider.

Cllr Baynham said: “I parked in a car park run by The Highland Council where they allowed 30 minutes free of charge, if you required further time you paid for it.

“It would be a very sensible and popular decision if we too could implement the same scheme.

“There is absolutely no point in having car parks that are virtually empty because no one wants to pay £2.50 to pop to the shop for 20 minutes.”

Under the question at any time rules, Cllr Charlton has 10 days to respond.

A council spokeswoman said: “The cabinet member will formally reply to Cllr Baynham’s question within the 10 working days timeframe.

“In the meantime, we can confirm that the cabinet paper has been drafted and is going the various approvals needed and will soon be discussed at by the scrutiny committee prior to cabinet making their decision.”