Businesses: Town-centre Parking

Lord Bishop of Wakefield Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

As my noble friend will understand from my earlier responses, we are carrying out this review because we think some of the parking measures already in place are having a negative effect on the vitality of our high streets and towns. The measures that we are considering are there to address the importance of parking. My noble friend mentioned specifically the use of CCTV cameras. I stress that we are considering the use of those cameras in parking bays, and what is important is that they are proportionate in their use.

[The Lord Bishop of Wakefield]

My Lords, I want to focus particularly on the impact on small towns, which may not necessarily have trains and buses bringing people into them. Where there are not just large-scale out-of-town developments but also small-scale shopping centres, where it is easy to park for nothing, the impact on the high street is significant. In Mirfield, in the diocese from which I come, free parking has had a very good impact. In Berwick-upon-Tweed, another town I know very well, there is no free parking and that is seriously affecting local businesses. Can we be assured that Her Majesty’s Government will encourage local authorities to look at ways of finding more parking spaces in small towns?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

The right reverend Prelate is right to raise the issue of more free parking. In a recent report published by Deloitte, more free parking was the single biggest issue raised by people who responded. In examining some options, we are trying to ensure that local people have a greater say in the parking arrangements of their local areas—and, clearly, access to free parking should be one of those things.