A HIKE in parking charges at car parks across Woodley and Earley have come into force despite backlash slamming the move as ‘unjustified’.
Parking charges in both towns and the rest of Wokingham Borough were increased by the council in a vote held in March, despite opposition from the Conservatives.
The council’s Liberal Democrat administration voted to impose increases in parking charges at the council’s off street car parks to provide additional income, with incremental increases for stays up to one and two hours, with charges doubling for parking up to fours hours, six hours and more than six hours.
However, this was met with resistance and latest figures showing that ticket sales have actually increased in recent years has prompted the council to justify its decision.
The increases were meant to come into force more than two weeks ago on Monday, June 19, but a technical issue meant the changes were delayed.
A council officer said: “Due to a technical, software related issue, we’re unable to implement the planned changes to our car parking tariffs originally scheduled.
“To make the transition to the new charges as smooth as possible for our residents and businesses, we put up signs across all car parks last week (beginning Monday, June 6).
“The new charges will come into effect in all car parks at 6am on Monday, July 3.
“Temporary notices were placed over the new signs to avoid confusion during the cross-over week.”
READ MORE: Wokingham Borough Council defends parking charge hike despite sales boost
Councillor Keith Baker (Conservative, Coronation) has been updating members of the public on the situation on Woodley Facebook community pages.
He also shared data demonstrating that 2022/23 broke a record for the amount of parking tickets sold in Wokingham Borough, with the last record being set in 2005/6.
In most years, over a million parking tickets are sold across Wokingham Borough’s off street car parks.
However, tickets sales both prior to and during the pandemic fell below a million, with 978,095 tickets being sold in 2019/20, and 665,105 being sold in 2020/21, the year of the pandemic.
But ticket sales bounced back to 1,081,846 in 2021/22, and increased by 208,524 to 1,290,370 in 2022/23, the last financial year.
Cllr Baker has argued that the charge hikes are unjustified given the bounce back in car park usage.
The increases were first introduced in the council’s budget for 2023/24 in February, and were subsequently made official after an executive committee meeting in March.
READ MORE: Plan to increase Wokingham and Woodley car parking charges gets negative response
During discussion of the 2023/24 budget, Conservatives proposed amendments which they claim would have saved £2.1 million and would have capped parking prices at pre-existing levels, but these measures were rejected at the full council budget meeting in February.
Wokingham Conservative leader councillor Pauline Jorgensen (Conservative, Hillside) said: “We proposed not increasing car parking this year to try and help local businesses recover.”
Confronted with the increased parking use figures, cllr Paul Fishwick (Liberal Democrats, Winnersh) executive member for transport, said: “We’re pleased that use of our car parks is increasing, with a total of 1,290,370 tickets issued from machines in 2022. There have been some recent changes to how we charge in our car parks which mean that the increase has not resulted in a corresponding rise in income.”
The councillor explained how 113,000 ‘free vend’ tickets are included in the figures and shown as ‘sold’ however are given out with no charge for eligible drivers therfore providing no income to the council.
Cllr Fishwick also explained that ticket sales are ‘not exactly comparable’ from year to year after an increase in parking spaces across the borough. The council has extended the Denmark Street Car Park, and the additional Carnival Hub multi-storey site in recent years.
Adding: “Also, travel patterns have changed since the Covid pandemic, resulting in an increase in short-stay parking and a decrease in long-stay parking, which accounts for a higher number of ticket sales.
“Our car parking charges have not increased in five years, at a time when the service has seen a drop in income coupled with rising costs to run the service. Increasing the parking charges will help to bridge that gap but they are also part of a range of measures that will help the council achieve a balanced budget and ensure other vital services are protected.”
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