The Conservatives have suggested that by making current parking charges 10p cheaper, and making two well-underused car parks £1 an hour, will be good for Salisbury and solve the car parking issue that they created.

The two car parks proposed at £1 an hour will be Culver Street and Southampton Rd, opposite the College. The WC report clearly shows that these car parks are well-underused. Culver Street is only ever 27% full at best and Southampton Rd a paltry 1%.

Southampton Rd, owned by the City council (but managed by WC) is currently free. This is because it is cheaper to make it free than collect the small sums made by charging. Just who is going to pay the proposed £8 a day to park here?

I made this case yesterday, and stated that many in Salisbury choose to go to either Bournemouth (60p an hour in their Central car park) or West Quay in Southampton, where it’s cheaper to park. I even quoted the parking charges from the West Quay website at committee. John Thomson, the cabinet member suggested that i was making this up, but shut up when i said that i was reading direct from the website, which i immediately forwarded onto him!

While i applaud council officers looking at the issue this time (the Tories spent £50,000 on consultants last time), making these two car parks £1 an hour will not solve the parking issue here and shows just how out of touch and remote Trowbridge is. Makes the case for a south Wiltshire council even stronger.

The recommendations may be subject to change at the cabinet meeting in due course. The full report can be read here. It is item 6a and appendix 3 shows the proposed new charges, which will be variable across all car parks.