'Parking vital for vibrancy and vitality of town centres' (From Gazette & Herald)

'Parking vital for vibrancy and vitality of town centres'

WHILE more and more people sign up to the Gazette & Herald's campaign to drive down parking charges in Ryedale's towns, over the hills in Hambleton parking is largely free.

Car parks in Thirsk, Stokesley, Northallerton, Bedale and Easingwold, are owned and controlled by Hambleton District Council.

So why is its policy so different to that of Ryedale District Council?

Mick Jewitt, head of planning and environmental development at Hambleton District Council, explained the authority's long-term strategy on parking charges.

"Although it's free car parking, there are costs to the council in maintaining and regulating the car parks, so in effect some of our budget is used to provide car parking services," he said.

"The council obviously made a decision that free car parking is important considering it spends money on that rather than on other things. The reason that's been done in the past was that the council regarded parking as extremely important to the vibrancy and vitality of the market town centres, important in maintaining their position in the hierarchy and giving them a commercial advantage."

Despite being free, parking is time restricted to ensure a high turn-over of visitors in the towns.

"We have a very successful short-stay system regulated through discs, giving a two-hour limit," said Mr Jewitt.

"People put a disc within the window of the car that shows when you arrived and there are enforcement officers in the car parks."

The car parks are Secured by Design, a national standard which means that they have a high safety standard, and they each have an emergency telephone, are well-lit and provide information within them for users.

"All that costs, and it costs a lot to maintain them to the very high standard we do," said Mr Jewitt.

He said the free parking provided in Hambleton is very rare nationally, and it is the only authority within North Yorkshire now providing it.

However, he said that as budgets get tighter the situation may change. In April, the council was 'capped' by central government, limiting its increase on its portion of council tax.

"We weren't able to put the council tax up to the level we thought was necessary that means we've got to look at budget and a revised financial strategy," explained Mr Jewitt. "For 2011/2012 we're looking at the possibility of introducing car parking charges."

But he stressed that he did not believe parking charges were the only factor in the popularity of a town.

"If you're looking for a reason as to why one market town appears more prosperous than another there is not one reason it is a range of reasons," he said.

"Northallerton is very very buoyant at present a big factor in that is the size of the centre and it has an excellent range of shops including specialist shops and a departmental store, which are becoming rare. It also benefits from lot of local employment and a very successful twice-weekly market."

"So I guess I would say there are many components," he added. "There are many successful shopping centres that charge for parking and that doesn't deter people."

Updated: 16:17 Thursday, October 27, 2005