Buckinghamshire parking charges to be extended amid ‘financial pressures’

Buckinghamshire Council has said it will extend parking charges amid the ‘financial pressures’ facing the authority.

The move would mean that motorists using some council car parks will now have to pay to park their vehicle during evenings, Sundays, and bank holidays.

The changes to on and off-street parking charges will come into force by September 1 after being approved by cabinet members during a meeting on Tuesday morning.

Council leader Martin Tett claimed the measures, which affect 104 car parking sites from Aylesbury to Iver, were necessary due to the budgetary pressures facing the authority.

In recent years, Cllr Tett has frequently warned of the four main pressures on the council’s coffers: adult and children’s social care, temporary accommodation for homeless people and home to school transport for vulnerable children.

In a written statement ahead of the cabinet meeting, Cllr Tett said: “In light of the financial pressures facing the council I support these amendments.”

However, not everyone agreed with the changes to parking fees, which received 557 objections, including from some of the councillors representing Buckinghamshire’s 49 wards.

Among them were Chess Valley councillor Emily Culverhouse, who said the extended charges at Chesham’s Albany Place car park beside the Elgiva Theatre would be ‘catastrophic’ for the town.

Under the approved changes, drivers will now have to pay to park at the site on Sundays and bank holidays – despite it currently being free – and free parking in the evenings will now start an hour later at 7pm.

In a statement, Cllr Culverhouse said: “This will have a huge effect on the Elgiva. Most shows start at 7.30pm, if parking only becomes free at 7pm then customers will not arrive early enough to spend significantly at the bar, reducing spend per head.”

She added: “It will be perceived by residents as Bucks Council simply trying to maximise income with little regard for the impact on our communities.”

Parking charges on Sundays and bank holidays will also be introduced at car parks in other areas, such as Great Missenden, where free evening parking at the Link Road and Buryfield sites is also being pushed back by an hour to 7pm.

A spokesperson for Great Missenden Parish Council said that extending chargeable hours and charges would put the ‘financial burden’ on businesses and residents and make the village ‘less attractive to visitors including cycling groups, footballers and market visitors’.

Cllr Tett acknowledged the backlash to the charging extensions, telling the cabinet meeting he would ‘love to give parking to residents for free’ but adding: “We as a cabinet have to take the hard and often unpopular decisions.”

The cabinet member for transport Steven Broadbent also addressed the criticism of the plans, telling the meeting: “I do understand that people will be charged for parking at a time when historically they have not been.”

However, he said that changes to parking fees would also ‘smooth out’ the differences between the chargeable hours at car parks across the county.

The council said its measures would also allow heavier modern vehicles to use council car parks, ‘improve the turnover of vehicles freeing up spaces’ and remove locations no longer managed by the authority.

Attempting to justify its plans, the council pointed to other local authorities such as Slough and Watford, which charge parking fees on Sundays and bank holidays and until 10pm.

The council also said it was trying to maintain cash payments at car parking sites but said that these have fallen to a small proportion of overall payments.

Cllr Tett told the meeting: “Cash on the way out. That is just a fact of modern life.”

A full list of changes to parking charges is available here: https://shorturl.at/uxSeQ