Review of parking in west Berkshire
The council wants to change some of the long-term parking in Newbury into short-term parking spaces
A public consultation is to be launched into west Berkshire council's new parking strategy in the coming month.
It wants to change some of the long-term parking in Newbury into short-term parking spaces.
The council is also reviewing things in a post-pandemic ways of working mode, as fewer people now travel to work and need to park.
Prior to the Covid pandemic, it was expected that Newbury would require additional car parking capacity within a few years.
Changing habits now mean that the reverse is true.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), at the end of 2022, 16 per cent of working adults work entirely from home, while 28 per cent work in a hybrid manner (part at home, and part at work). Workers are more likely to work from home or hybrid as their income increases.
The impacts of Covid in particular, have seen increased consumer spending moving online and away from high streets, leading to a huge growth in home deliveries.
The focus on the environment is also seeing a change to electric vehicles with different infrastructure requirements to petrol and diesel-engined vehicles.
The estimated cost of providing the parking service in 2023/24 is £2m, with income of £3.1m.
This gives a net income to the council of £1.1m.
This is considerably less than was available before the Covid pandemic and impacts on the funding for other council activities.
A lengthy report on parking in West Berkshire has been published.
It includes assessment of all parking locations and their future viability, current and future parking capacity needs both on and off street, parking charges including hours of operation, resident permit scheme, allocation and pricing and expanding methods of enforcement.
The council has 15 parking enforcement officers, and it says this strategy will include the provision of parking, and the controls in place to deal with inconsiderate or unauthorised parking under its control.
The council expects to make £2.17m a year in parking charges, £330,000 in penalty charge notices and £50,000 from residents’ permits.
Where residents have no off-street parking available, they are able to purchase two permits.
For each space they have available off-street, their entitlement to a permit is similarly reduced.
All permits cost £30 each year, except for Hungerford High Street and Newbury Park Terrace where the charge is £70.
The higher charge is because residents are using spaces that would otherwise be chargeable to the general public.
There are 27 council-operated car parks in West Berkshire.
In 2020/21, the Kennet Shopping centre sold an average of 630 tickets each day, and has 415 spaces.
In Hungerford, turnover in Church Street is four times that of Station Road.
The Kingsland Centre is used far more than the other Thatcham car parks.
There are a total of 2,603 council spaces in West Berkshire, and 2,358 spaces from other providers – 159 council parking spaces in Hungerford, 43 in Lambourn, 1,800 in Newbury during the week and 1,950 during the weekends. Pangbourne has 94, Thatcham 44 and Theale 67.