There are fears a 33% hike in car parking charges in Gloucester will put more shops out of business as the city is “looking like a ghost town”.
Councillors raised concerns about the all day tariff increase along with the number of empty city centre premises at Gloucester City Council’s meeting on Thursday night (March 23).
Councillor Alastair Chambers (Ind, Matson, Robinswood and White City) said the minimum two-hour charge is also going to put off shoppers who want to pop into the city centre to make a few quick purchases.
He also said it was worrying to see that so many council owned properties are empty.
These include 16 empty retail spaces at Eastgate Shopping Centre, two empty units at Kings Walks Shopping Centre and another couple at St Oswald’s Park and 19a Westgate Street.
He also said there is vacant office space and the pointed out the lack of progress with Herbert, Kimberley and Philpott warehouses.
“Many shops are empty, many jobs redundant. Many places are closed. It’s looking like a ghost town,” he said.
“I appreciate parking hasn’t got up a lot in many years but 33% increase for an all-day ticket and a minimum two-hour charge I don’t think is acceptable. It hasn’t worked in the past. It won’t work now.
“We need to help our shops and keep people in employment. Please can we rethink these charges.
“Some people just want to pop into the shops for an hour, grab some bits and go. But if people have got to pay for two hours that’s going to kill that off.”
Performance and resources cabinet member Hannah Norman (C, Quedgeley Fieldcourt) said she didn’t agree with the premise of the question which suggests “Gloucester is a dead city”.
She said councillors should be advocates for Gloucester and not talk it down.
“When I go to the city, it’s busy. There’s regeneration going on across the board, there’s vibrancy in the events being put on and brilliant innovation in our night time economy.”
She said council chiefs were committed to monitoring the usage of the car parks after the tariff increase to see if it is dissuading people from coming to the city.
“Staffing costs have increased by circa 12%, electricity by around 17%, cleaning up to 18%,” Cllr Norman explained.
“But since 2017 we’ve invested £2 million in our car parks to ensure residents and visitors want to spend time here.”
Cllr Chambers said that it is precisely because he loves Gloucester that he raises these issues at council. He said too many council-owned premises in the city centre are empty.
He said: “Let’s get these empty council buildings open. Some have been closed for six years.”
He said this is costing the council £166,000 a year and called for overview and scrutiny committee to look into the issue to make sure the council gets “lifeblood into the city”.
Cllr Norman said she was more than happy for the overview and scrutiny committee to look into the issue.
“What’s really important to say is we are involved in trying to re-purpose the city centre and place shaping,” she said. “These things don’t happen overnight.
“Especially when we’ve gone through a pandemic where it has been very challenging for businesses.”
She said there are “lots of good announcements” coming this year and £2m of investment will be spent on Kings Walk Shopping Centre.
