Trial of new parking tariffs in some Scarborough car parks approved

A one-year trial of new parking tariffs in some of Scarborough’s car parks has been approved.

Author: Karen Liu with contributions from Local Democracy Reporter, Carl GavaghanPublished 21st Apr 2021

A one-year trial of new parking tariffs in some of Scarborough’s car parks has been approved.

Scarborough Council will add the option to allow people to pay to park for up to five and eight hours in order to encourage visitors to stay in the town longer.

The trial will be carried out in the Eastborough, Marine Drive, Quay Street, West Pier, South Bay Underground and the Spa Drive and Forecourt car parks, all of which are located in Scarborough.

Previously patrons only had the option to pay to stay for one, three, six or 24 hours.

The new tariffs will be charged at £6 for five hours and £8 for eight hours.

Approval for the trial was granted by the council’s cabinet member for Neighbourhoods, Cllr Tony Randerson today.

In a report prepared for Cllr Randerson it stated that the added options for motorists had been requested by traders.

John Senior, Chairman of the South Bay Traders Association, said:

"What we're wanting is that when people do take the trouble to come and visit us here in Scarborough, and at the moment the only way of getting here really is by car, they're welcomed and looked after and that's reflected by tariffs that allow them to stay for as long as they can and particularly into the evening period.

"What we were looking for was a tariff that allowed people to arrive and have a day in Scarborough and then if they wanted to stay in the evening, they could without being penalised and that's really what we were trying to do to get as many options as possible to suit them and to meet and fulfill their expectations.

"When they went home they felt that they had a wonderful day at the resort, it was easy to get to, parking was easily accessible and was also priced fairly and they went away happy, that was the whole point and also they had the time and the resource to spend their well earned pounds.

"Scarborough for the last 20 years have suffered under a parking policy that was draconian, it was there to force people to use the park and ride and therefore it has been designed to put people off from coming to Scarborough, that's what it was designed to do. We're also asking for a full overhaul of our whole parking structure."

The shorter five-hour tariff will also be trialled following feedback.

The changes are due to start at some point next month.

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