Council looks to make parking charges fair across borough plus charge on Sundays

Cheshire East Council is considering whether to carry out a review of the car parking charges to make them fair across the borough and introduce charges for parking on a Sunday.

At the moment parking in council-owned car parks is free in some town and villages such as Alsager, Audlem, Bollington, Handforth, Holmes Chapel, Middlewich, Prestbury, Poynton and Sandbach.

Whilst in Wilmslow charges vary from 30p for up to 2 hours at The Carrs, 60p for a hour at Broadway Meadow, 70p for a hour at Hoopers and South Street car parks then 80p at Spring Street. At South Street in Alderley Edge the charge is 50p for the first hour.

Cheshire East Council's highways and transport committee is to consider giving the green light for a consultation to seek people's views on proposals to change parking charges.

The Council says the proposed public consultation would be on measures that would deliver fairness, standardisation and transparency and are aimed at encouraging greener and 'more active' travel, such as walking, cycling and public transport. The proposed changes are designed to support the vitality of our town and village centres.

The main proposals before the committee are to:
● Standardise the approach to parking charges across the borough;
● Introduce parking charges in places where parking is currently free;
● Introduce Sunday parking charges; and
● Introduce waiting restrictions at some on-street parking locations to encourage the use of car parks.

Subject to approval by the committee, the council would hold a 30-day statutory consultation on the proposals starting at the end of September 2021. The statutory minimum consultation for such proposed changes is three weeks.

Final recommendations, following the conclusion of the consultation, would go before a meeting of the council's highways and transport committee for decision. The intention is that any changes to parking would not come into force before January 2022.

The current proposals follow a public survey in autumn 2020 and early 2021 which received more than 3,700 responses.

The survey found:
● 51 per cent of respondent agreed that hourly parking charges should be the same across the borough's car parks;
● 59 per cent supported greater enforcement of illegal and inconsiderate parking;
● Support for a greater range of payments options, including cash-free payments; and
● Support for more electric vehicle charging points in council car parks.