To think Free Parking is the answer to revive our town centres?

[Jumell]

I’ve been thinking a bit about this lately.

Whenever I thought about going to the city centre where I used to live, to shop/browse etc - the main thing that would stop me going was the thought of paying for parking - I’d just think - ‘nah’ - and not bother going in.

i think that if the Govt took the initiative to scrap all charges from car parking companies - NCP/Councils etc etc in town centres / high streets - it would massively revive these shopping centres that we all knew and loved?

I only consider park and ride if I’m going shopping all day. Which is honestly, once every 2/3 years. Most times it’s just an hour or two. Get what I need and get out, so I wouldn’t choose somewhere that has park and ride.
I appreciate I might be unusual.

Parking in my local town is £3 for two hours, it’s £2 each way on the bus (might be £3 now).

I think most towns are missing a trick by not bringing in river taxis. One or two an hour running the length of a towns river and back with stops for the major suburbs, I think they would be well used.

Those American candy stores can be fronts for money laundering, apparently.

I take your point and really do understand the pressures ... I suppose the thing is that it starts small, and needn't be expensive.

E.g. Each year Brussels has a car-free Sunday when the entire city centre is only for bicycles and pedestrians (obviously with necessary exceptions and facilities for disabled residents).

The idea is to introduce the bare concept of what a carless town feels like. The silence from the lack of cars is amazing, and it's lovely to see kids playing in the middle of a normally car-filled road.

I'm an immigrant to the Netherlands from a heavily car-dependent country, like the UK.

Seeing how a country transitions from car-centric to people-centric is fascinating, and made me realise it's possible everywhere, albeit adapted to local needs.

A High Street can be revived.

My closest large town has free parking. The high street is pretty much empty other than the usual suspects of bookies, charity shops and takeaways.

The days of a bustling high street are finished. We all want to drive to the door of a large shop and get everything in one go.

The car park revenues mean lower rents for the businesses. So while it seems logical to increase footfall by having free parking, the end result is higher rents for the businesses. So it may not make much of a difference.

Oh yes i used to absolutely love going around my local large town on Sundays, pre Sunday opening, pure bliss and very weird!

But it all comes down to money, no cars allowed, so buses and P&R would have to be free, i think thats a good idea but what council here has the money?

Over to you Ms Reeves.

I don't mind paying (a reasonable amount - not something like £4 an hour) but I wish they would make them pay on exit.
You grab a ticket on way in then scan on way out or pay by app on way out.

Those horrible parking companies would go out of business though!

Apart from in towns such as York where it floods in winter so they would be very seasonal and may not be profitable.

How? Most properties aren't owned by councils, so rents just get paid to landlords/owners or pension schemes, no link to parking revenues at all. Not to mention that lots of car parks aren't owned by councils either.

Nothing is ever free

Depends where you live I guess, but the last thing we need here is more cars on the road!

The cars ARE on the road, just going to out of town retail parks and supermarkets instead. If we want town centres to survive, then some of those cars need to be encouraged to go into the towns instead to spend their money and use amenities.

There’s not much point if it’s just gridlock though, is there? We need public transport that actually works.

Definitely op, closing off highs streets.

My nearest town centre I visited once (that’s £11.50 I won’t be spending again)

It is a pedestrianised ghost town

Parking is set at an obscene amount to keep the cars out of the town centre and encourage people onto public transport

It isnt working

Most people don’t bother whether they drive or not and go to a shopping centre miles away because with free parking comes loads of shops

In many places the congestion is because of traffic calming, one way systems, bus only lanes, access only roads, pedestrianised roads, etc. Road design could be improved to reduce congestion by not forcing cars into roads they don't need to be on because they're being diverted all round town when they could have a shorter route by being allowed to use more of the roads which are currently blocked off to them. I.e. in our city, it's a one mile clockwise drive all around the congested one way system to go from the only exit of a car park to get back to where you started and take a turn off the one way system, literally one block away from the car park! All that traffic clogging up the one way system for no reason. Some councils deliberately create congestion to try to push people onto buses, but all it does is make them go elsewhere and the town centre slowly dies.

Ah yes, sorry - you’re right. There’s infinite space for cars in city centres, and no one should have to get a bus.

Councils on their knees they spend a lot on decorative things for mayors and taxis Why do mayors have to dress so daft Definitely free parking would be. a decent thing to do Starmer said he wants people to have more money in their pockets he should make some decisions like free parking in town centres put some money into making use of waste groundHe is finding money for other things

Our local town was a ghost town,, everything shut. Then a company called "peoples parking' bought the local town centre car park. You get 3 hours free, no need to do anything, just park and leave before the 3 hours runs out. There's a camera on the way in and way out. Well the town is now bustling - loads of new thriving businesses, the council have put in a pop up shop for tiny businesses to use at weekends, the car park is nearly always full. It's fantastic and is 100% down to the car parking situation. So you're not wrong OP.

Our towns and city centre car parks are very busy, so the parking doesn't put people off.

The parking has to be paid for. Make it too expensive and no one comes. The big name stores are moving out

Boarded up shops don’t make the best scenery for a Cafe Culture. Even that requires transport that you would want to get on

That’s very encouraging 🙌

One town centre I know has sold its multi level car park which is likely earmarked for development. Our own town centre has sold its two car parks, also earmarked for housing. In my case, the public transport links are fantastic so no need to drive in, and the high street is well-used and attractive

Think about all the shopping centres that have free parking compared to the town centres and shopping centres that charge for parking

My home town had a very busy high street with a road going through it that had parking on each side of the road

People would spill out into the road (think crowd coming out of a football match.) Cars would crawl at walking speed. Passengers would get out of cars to nip into a particular shop and then get back into the car after their purchase as it hadn’t gone too far

Local council decided to pave over the road

Car Park built a few minutes walk away.

Almost overnight town centre became deserted