Cost of Bristol residential parking permits to more than double
It's to discourage drivers from owning a car
The cost of a permit in resident parking zones in Bristol will more than double after councillors approved massive increases. The cost for a first vehicle permit will rise from £56 to £124 in the affected areas.
The increases proposed by Bristol City Council are still much less than the hike previously put forward by Labour, before the recent local elections when they lost power to the Greens. In January earlier this year, Labour suggested increasing the cost to £178.
Councillors on the transport policy committee voted to approve the increases on Thursday, September 12. The hike is expected to take place after a three-month legal notice, informing affected drivers of the changes.
Green Councillor Ed Plowden, chair of the committee, said: “I’ve asked for this to be based on a full cost recovery model, for each of the first permits to cover the full cost of running resident parking services. Any excess income from resident parking schemes has been ringfenced to re-invest in transport. Second and third cars, plus any income from pay and display, then help the transport budget.”
In January, Labour proposed tripling the fees as a way to discourage drivers from owning a car, and encourage them to switch to walking, cycling or taking public transport instead. But that proposal was never carried out, and a blame game erupted over whose fault the delay was.
Green Cllr David Wilcox said: “The previous administration chose not to implement their own charge, so the delay is purely down to the previous administration, not this administration. We’re choosing to actually put a lower price for the first car. I think this is more equitable for the whole city and a more positive outcome.”
Cllr Plowden added: “When this was moved in January, I think the administration at the time knew damn well that there was absolutely no way that this could be put in place, with the notice required, and implemented before the pre-election period in March. It was a very strange thing to bring forward.”
Hitting back at the criticism, Labour councillors claimed it was actually the Greens who took the decision not to go ahead with the tripling of the cost of permits. They added the delay could have cost the council half a million pounds.
Cllr Don Alexander, former cabinet member for transport, said: “I had every intention of it being implemented. I don’t know who has encouraged officers not to take this forward. But I still think it was very much the right thing to do.”
Cllr Kaz Self added: “Since May, if the £178 had been implemented, that’s about £500,000 of potential missed benefit. If officers had just gone on with it, that would be money that would have come into this transport committee.”
Another concern however is the effect on areas just outside of permitted zones. Councillors will carry out a review soon on the existing boundaries of the RPZ areas, and consider changing them, as part of the new task and finish group focusing on parking changes across the city.
Cllr Emma Edwards, leader of the Green group, said: “There are unintended consequences of doing this when the areas outside don’t have any RPZ at all. So you’re going to raise the ones that do, and then just outside, none at all. I have very big concerns that this is going to have a knock-on effect in these areas.”
Resident parking zones were first introduced in Bristol in 2011, as a way to stop commuters driving into the city and parking on residential streets near the centre. Only residents living within the zones are allowed to park in them, with certain exceptions. An ongoing problem has been areas just outside the zones which are now suffering from much higher parking pressures.