Parking in Shrewsbury to remain free after 6pm

Parking in Shrewsbury will continue to be free after 6pm after Shropshire Council’s Cabinet agreed to amend its new parking strategy at its meeting last week.

The decision follows discussions between Shropshire Council and Shrewsbury BID at which the BID raised concerns about plans to introduce charging until 8pm on-street and in the Bridge Street, St Austin’s Street and Quarry swimming centre car parks.

The decision means that parking will remain free after 6pm in Shrewsbury both on-street, and in all Shropshire Council-owned car parks – with the exception of Raven Meadows multi-storey, for which charges are due to apply until midnight initially, before 24-hour opening comes into effect later in the year.

However, the Raven Meadows changes are currently on hold as this is the subject of a ‘call-in’ by the council’s Liberal Democrat group – and is due to be considered at a meeting of the performance management scrutiny committee next week.

At the same time there will be free parking on Sundays and bank holidays in Frankwell and Abbey Foregate, 15 minutes’ ‘pop and shop’ free parking in all car parks, discounted weekly and season tickets in Frankwell and Abbey Foregate, and parking for up to five hours in Frankwell and Abbey Foregate will be cheaper than it is now.

The changes are due to come into effect in October.

Steve Davenport, Cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “One of the key aims of the new parking strategy is to encourage people to visit Shrewsbury and all our market towns by making parking and parking charges simpler, clearer and fairer, and to help local business as a result. We’ve listened carefully to the BID throughout the two rounds of consultation into the strategy, and had already made a number of changes to the strategy as a result. I’m pleased that we’ve now come to an agreement about evening charges too, which we hope will benefit Shrewsbury’s town centre businesses and help to boost the town’s night-time economy.”

Peter Nutting, leader of Shropshire Council, said: “We’ve listened to the concerns of the BID and to local businesses regarding evening parking charges, and I’m pleased that we’ve now come to an agreement with which everyone is happy. We now look forward to working with the BID to promote Shrewsbury and our new parking arrangements to residents, visitors and businesses.”

Roger Evans, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said: “I and we are pleased that the Cabinet has revisited this now and not waited until it was examined by the scrutiny committee next week. Both business and those who use these car parks in the early evening can now be reassured that Shropshire Council cares about both their welfare and business.”