Councillors in Brighton scrap parking charge hike

There was outrage when the big increases came to light in July to quadruple the charges.

Author: Sarah Booker-Lewis, Local Democracy ReporterPublished 27th Sep 2023
Last updated 27th Sep 2023

Scrapping plans to quadruple the charge for on-street parking in four areas of Brighton and Hove is expected to cost £400,000 in lost income, according to the council.

There was outrage when the big increases came to light in July, in public notices, with some areas due to switch from low tariff to high tariff.

Parking for an hour was due to go up from £1.40 to £5.60 in parts of central Hove, Queen’s Park, Kemp Town and the London Road area.

The Brighton and Hove City Council controlled parking zones affected were C, H, J and N.

Zones in Brighton and Hove

A report to the council’s Transport and Sustainability Committee said that the parking services budget had a forecast overspend of £830,000 before the planned increase was put on hold.

The loss of the extra £400,000 would push the potential overspend to £1.23 million, the report said.

The report also said that the budget was being monitored and the impact analysed.

There were six responses to the traffic order to increase tariffs after it was published with the revised prices.

Appendix Parking Charges - as they appeared on the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee agenda in January 2023

Commenters said that the money from parking should be used to support concessionary travel, walking and cycling infrastructure and encourage people away from driving.

The report said that the revenue from on-street parking permits, tariffs and penalty charges must be used for highways and transport projects, including concessionary bus fairs and subsidised bus services.

Councillors are being asked to approve a proposal to keep all the zones on a low tariff except for Kingsway which would have a medium tariff.

The Transport and Sustainability Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm next Tuesday (3 October). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.

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