Shropshire Council is consulting on higher parking charges across the county, including in Ludlow.
In Ludlow, on-street car parking costs will rise by an average of 13%. Hourly charges in Galdeford A car park (upper deck) will rise by 17%. In the lower decks (Galdeford B) and in the Smithfield car park, hourly charges will go up by 25%.
Season tickets in Galdeford A will rise by between 15% and 17%. In Galdeford B and Smithfield, season ticket charges will rise by between 23% to 26%.
The increase in season ticket charges in Galdeford B and Smithfield are well above inflation. They will be unwelcome news for workers and residents at a time when taxes, and energy and housing costs are rising rapidly.
The council says parking “charges have not increased since 2018 and so require adjustment for inflation over this period.” Inflation between January 2018 and January 2002 was 16.9%. But car park management and staffing costs, principally enforcement, has not risen by 17% in four years.
There has been some rounding of the proposed charges: “The pricing structure needs to enable payment with coins, and to facilitate the linear pricing structure for customers.” That makes sense in Smithfield where costs of £0.30 an hour will rise by £0.10 an hour. But it doesn’t justify the hiking of season ticket charges by a quarter.
The council is conducting separate consultations for on-street and car park charges. You have until 20 May to comment.
We recently moved from Ludlow to Ely and we are still coming to terms with the amazing fact that pretty much all the car parks are free. Some for short stay and others designated for long stay. It is absolutely incredible. I’m wondering how long it will be maintained though!
The Council seems to have forgotten that Ludlow is a market town in the middle of a rural area. Many people, myself included, do not have the option of bus or train service and have to use our cars. Parking charges are like a tax on our shopping at the best of times; to increase them at a time such as now when people are dealing with an unprecedented rise in the cost of living – including the price of fuel – seems very shortsighted and your traders should be concerned at the detrimental effect on their businesses. Parking is a service provided to your customers .
Bridgnorth Council learnt a lesson after its decision to end cash payment of their 20p public toilet fee and switch to contactless payment only. They soon realised that this was sending an inhospitable message to visitors and recently decided that the best solution was to do away with the charge altogether.