Councillors will later this week receive the initial findings of consultants commissioned to look at car parking requirements in Huntingdonshire’s market towns.
The need to review the council’s car parking strategy was identified because of a number of emerging issues. These include:
• The need for up-to-date information of the requirements for parking in the market towns and consideration of possible locations to meet future needs
• Development plans for Huntingdon town centre have identified that parking needs are a fundamental issue in maintaining the viability of the town centre
• Slower than anticipated take-up in developing retail opportunities in Huntingdon that would have provided additional parking spaces.
• Planned redevelopment of major sites with potentially less replacement parking
• More residential development in town centres, in accordance with government policy, with an impact of greater demand for parking on-street or in public car parks.
As part of the information-gathering process the consultants met with business and community groups to explore such issues as:
• providing more spaces to meet increased demand
• using pricing to maintain demand at current levels and improving signage to car parks and encouraging alternative travel choices in the future
• using pricing and supply to reduce parking demand and supply and encourage a shift to other forms of transport.
Specifically for Huntingdon, St Neots and St Ives, the consultants recommend that over a period of time charges for long-stay car parking should be introduced or applied consistently. Their report highlights the differential between cheap or free parking compared to the cost of a bus ticket and asks whether a charging regime should work towards reducing that differential and making the use of public transport more attractive.
Councillor Peter Bucknell, executive councillor for planning strategy, said: “This is really just the start of the process of drawing up parking strategies and action plans for each of our market towns to take account of their individual circumstances.”
The report will be considered by the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Service Support) on Tuesday, 13 March, and by its Cabinet on Thursday 15 March.