1,000 occupant tower will "worsen" city centre parking problem
Concerns at parking provision for new development in Southampton
A new 600-flat apartment block on the site of the old Debenhams in Southampton, which has been approved for planning permission, will ‘inject 1,000 people into the city centre’ yet only have parking spaces for one tenth of them.
This comes as parking charges in the city centre are set to come back – providing the cabinet of Southampton City Council doesn’t heed the advice of the opposition and scrap the idea – in an attempt to free up ‘scarce’ spaces.
According to the 2011 census, 70.5 per cent of households in Southampton own a car and there are 429 cars owned for every 1,000 people.
The council’s reasoning for bringing back evening parking charges to the city centre was to ensure a faster turnover of spaces to help more people get to park, whilst at the same time disinsentivising motorists from driving into the city centre.
In the parking charges meeting on September 8 it was said that currently, 75 per cent of parking spaces are full in the evening and therefore the return of the charges were justified to help curb the scarcity.
However, now 1,000 more people will, if all goes ahead, be living in the city centre and many will be needing a parking space.
Councillor David Fuller, who chaired the September 8 meeting and recommended the council scraps the return of parking charges commented on the new apartment block.
He said: “I have no doubt the council will see a small number of parking spaces in the development as a way of trying to ensure less people living in the development drive.
“However, the reality is it will simply force people to park on city centre roads and car parks.”