‘It’s imperative the council listens to the people who know Northampton best,’ says Town Centre BID in final push

West Northamptonshire Council’s public consultation into the proposal to scrap free weekend parking and increase all hourly rates has come to an end.

Business owners, the public, political and religious figures, and Northampton Town Centre Business Improvement District (BID) have done all they can to show the council how poor of a decision this would be.

However, there will now be a three-week wait until the full council meeting on February 22 for the final decision to be made – and the council will take everything that has been shared with them into account.

Following a meeting between the council and Northampton Town Centre BID on January 30, BID’s operations manager Mark Mullen said: “We had a productive and encouraging meeting where the many concerns of town centre businesses were put forward and discussed at length.

“We are working closely with the council to ensure the voice of town centre businesses is heard, and we will continue to put their concerns and reservations at the top of the agenda.

“This is an important decision for the wellbeing of our town centre and it’s imperative the local authority listens to the people who know Northampton best – the people who live here, work here and shop here everyday.”

This newspaper launched a campaign on January 18, in conjunction with the petition started by Wesley Suter, director of Steffans Jewellers, to prevent the increases being implemented from April.

At the time of writing, this petition has amassed 1,273 signatures – as well as hundreds of comments under the petition and Chronicle & Echo’s social media posts.

If the proposal gets approved on February 22, West Northamptonshire Council will scrap free parking on Saturdays and Sundays for shoppers from April, in a bid to plug their £60 million shortfall in funding.

This will also see midweek prices increase by 10 percent, and the initial report said these plans could raise an extra £1 million in revenue.

Despite the fact that rises in parking charges were meant to be discussed on their own, the issue was bundled up in the 121-page draft budget and medium financial plan – as reported by Chronicle & Echo in December 2022.

Currently, shoppers can park free for up to two hours on Saturdays, and those staying longer or parking in midweek pay the equivalent of £1 an hour.

The new pricing scheme, if approved, will see all drivers pay £1.10, up to a maximum of £5.50 for five hours, and Sunday free parking will be replaced by a flat £2.20 all-day fee.

The proposal to increase town centre parking charges was revealed just days before this newspaper reported the confirmation from West Northamptonshire Council that the 50-year-old Mayorhold car park could be bulldozed.

West Northamptonshire’s draft budget said the multi-storey is “significantly under-utilised” and maintaining it is becoming such an issue that closing it could lead to “reduced costs and greater efficiency of the council’s resources”.

The draft budget estimated a £1.6 million shortfall in income from car parking in 2023 with spare capacity around the town – including Mayorhold, as usage of the 1,000-space car park has not returned to pre-Covid levels.

This begs the question – if a car park of that size is already underused, how will increasing car parking charges encourage more people to park there and visit the town centre?

Chronicle & Echo’s campaign may have finished in line with the end of the council’s public consultation, but we will continue to cover the proposal as it unfolds.