Introduction
Shropshire Council provides car parks and on-street parking across the county. The way that we manage and run our car parks and on-street parking is determined by our parking strategy.
This consultation considers seven proposed amendments to the council’s new parking strategy.
Parts 1 and 2 of the new parking strategy proposals were approved by Cabinet on 17 January 2018 and 11 April 2018 respectively. To date 17 of the 22 ‘part 1’ recommendations have been implemented, the new on-street residents parking policy has been adopted in Ludlow and a detailed feasibility proposal exercise for on street residents parking has been completed in Bridgnorth.
New pay and display parking machines have been installed across the county. All new machines have facilities for cash, card and contactless payments. Digital permits and tickets are also being rolled out through the Mipermit system.
Improvements to the parking service include improved ease of enforcement, improved customer satisfaction and more streamlined service with a large increase in chip and pin, contactless payments and digital ticketing.
The data available in the period following implementation and observations on the ground give evidence of a change in parking habits with an outward migration from on street parking bays to outlying off street carparks.
However, a number of issues have been raised following rollout including concerns with regards to increases in tariffs, the impact on the local economy, concessions for holiday lets and the reduction of on street resident permit provision.
These proposed amendments are intended to further refine the parking service, support ongoing development of Transport Mode Hierarchy and reduce environmental impact in our market towns.
The recommendations were agreed by the Performance Management Scrutiny Committee following a six month review of the Parking Strategy, and endorsed by Cabinet on Wednesday 3 July 2019. On 4 September 2019 Cabinet agreed that these seven proposed amendments go out to consultation.
