'Cost of parking is killing city's trade' (From Oxford Mail)
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'Cost of parking is killing city's trade'
10:20am Thursday 2nd September 2010 in
CAR parks are losing £700,000 in takings as drivers stay away from Oxford.
Oxford City Council has seen an 11 per cent fall in car park usage on last year – but shoppers and businesses say the authority only has itself to blame after driving out motorists with hefty charges and 15 years of ‘anti-motorist’ policies.
The impact on city coffers is now so severe that the council is drawing up plans to woo more motorists back, including extending season tickets for businesses who require city centre parking for staff. The council will also be reviewing car park charges.
A finance report to the city council’s executive board yesterday said there had been an ongoing fall in council car park usage, with income forecast to be £700,000 below budget.
It said: “The car parking manager is considering the options for tariff adjustments and promotions to stimulate demand.”
In the first three months of the current financial year, 166,149 people used the Westgate car park, compared to 204,571 in the same period two years ago. Income from the Westgate in the first quarter of this year fell to £669,072, from £802,788 in the same period in 2009/10.
Last year the city council increased its car park charges by an average of 15 per cent in a bid to raise an additional £500,000.
It now costs £7.60 to stay in the Westgate for three to four hours and £11.50 for four to six hours, rising on Saturday to £9.50 and £14.40. The charge in Gloucester Green car park is £16.70 for four to six hours on Saturday.
Deputy council leader Ed Turner said car parking was one of the important sources of council income being hit by the recession, adding: “We have asked officers to see what can be done to address it.
“Every pound that we lose from car parking is a pound that we are not able to spend on local services.”
He denied the council was doing a u-turn in its approach to motorists. He said: “Car parks provide an important part of our income and we wish to maintain that.
“There is no change in our approach.
“If we did not want people to drive into Oxford we would not provide car parks.”
Graham Jones, of the Rescue Oxford pressure group, said: “Whenever I pass the Westgate car park it is always half empty. This confirms all our suspicions that raising charges has put people off coming into Oxford.
“The increases have clobbered shoppers and local businesses. Now they are hitting the city council itself.”
He said the city had for years taken the view that ‘cars are bad’.
Mr Jones said Town Hall had been unable to say whether missing motorists had deserted Oxford or transferred to buses and park- and-rides.
He said: “My own view is that Oxford has missed out on lots of potential shoppers and tourists.”
Ray Lindsey, general manager of Haymans Fisheries in the Covered Market, said: “Many customers tell me to my face that the car parks are too expensive, while other places like Witney offer free parking.”
Comments(22)
SNJ
says...
11:09am Thu 2 Sep 10
West Oxon Webwatcher
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11:27am Thu 2 Sep 10
IDW2
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11:53am Thu 2 Sep 10
As an Oxford resident I am lucky not to have to drive into town, but whenever I want to go shopping I always go to Reading.
Make the centre worth visiting and people will come back and preferably use the Park and Ride.
GRB
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12:50pm Thu 2 Sep 10
It's untidy, dirty, with lot's of empty units. Many of the decent bars/pubs are gone and like IDW2 says, unless you're after a coffee or a mobile the choice is pretty awful.
All in all, Oxford City Council are a joke!
One issue I would like to say on the plus side is that the Park and Ride is generally a pretty good service. Much better option that taking out a mortgage to park at the Westgate.
boxfish
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12:56pm Thu 2 Sep 10
There’s already more traffic in Oxford than the roads can cope with, so we certainly don’t want to encourage those who can get here by bus fairly easily (and aren’t intending to buy large items that would be difficult to take home by bus) to bring their cars in, so any reduction in parking charges needs to be considered very carefully.
Looking at the bigger picture, the land Oxford sits on - buildings, roadways, open areas - can't expand. Projections by the Office for National Statistics foresee a growth in the city's own population from the 2001 (census) figure of 134,248 to 154,500 by 2020*. We can't keep on expecting to bring more and more people into it without seeing a very serious deterioration in the quality of life.
*See link from Oxford City Council’s ‘Communities’ web page to
http://www.oxford.go
v.uk/Direct/Populati
onEstimates2010Relea
ses.pdf
Andrew:Oxford
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1:21pm Thu 2 Sep 10
Berty
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2:39pm Thu 2 Sep 10
sparky123456
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3:28pm Thu 2 Sep 10
Andrew:Oxford
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6:02pm Thu 2 Sep 10
sparky123456 wrote:You could drive to Reading, pay £10 on fuel and £10 on parking... Or, drive into Oxford, pay £5.60 as a rail user to park at the station, then £7 after 09.01 for a return to Reading on the train. £12.60 + fuel cost to Oxford station... Bargain.
I only think the parking charges are around 20% of the reason people stay away. The rest is due to the fact that Oxford is a terrible shopping experience with awful shops and overpriced, crowded restaurants. For £10 fuel costs you could go to Westfields in London or the Oracle in Reading pay £10 to park and have access to over 100 unique stores, two thirds of which Oxford doesn't even have. Or for about £4 you could head to Bicester and use Bicester village and park for free!
Tom Cranmer
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6:27pm Thu 2 Sep 10
Green123
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7:26pm Thu 2 Sep 10
online_reader
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9:01am Fri 3 Sep 10
Shiptonoxford
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1:52pm Fri 3 Sep 10
sparky123456
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6:36pm Fri 3 Sep 10
Andrew:Oxford wrote:True... but let me reveal more pains of Oxford. I live in by the Old High St in Headington. To drive from there to Oxfords station has before taken an incredible 35 minutes! I can be in Reading in that same time. Also have you tried that stupid parking system at Oxford station? finding the number, ringing a service, texting a code. All for the pleasure of leaving youre car in a virtualy unsecured grotty car park. Then having my travel times dictated to me by a train company and sharing my space with someone elses noisy irritating children. I'd rather have the freedom to travel at my own pace.
sparky123456 wrote: I only think the parking charges are around 20% of the reason people stay away. The rest is due to the fact that Oxford is a terrible shopping experience with awful shops and overpriced, crowded restaurants. For £10 fuel costs you could go to Westfields in London or the Oracle in Reading pay £10 to park and have access to over 100 unique stores, two thirds of which Oxford doesn't even have. Or for about £4 you could head to Bicester and use Bicester village and park for free!You could drive to Reading, pay £10 on fuel and £10 on parking... Or, drive into Oxford, pay £5.60 as a rail user to park at the station, then £7 after 09.01 for a return to Reading on the train. £12.60 + fuel cost to Oxford station... Bargain.
sparky123456
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6:39pm Fri 3 Sep 10
online_reader wrote:you're quite right actually, not just for parent facilities but in general there's no toilets in Oxford! and the ones there are, are usually p*** soaked, full of tramps and used needles. The whole city actually stinks! But the shops have now cottoned on and aren't allowing public use of their toilets, BHS & Waterstones now have code locked toilets. Where on earth did all the toilets go?! Has anyone else seen the loo's at Westfields? they wouldn't be out of place in the Ritz, its crazy what we have to put up with here.
Oxford is inaccessible with a pushchair, full of miniscule lifts and stairs - in Boswells they even have stairs in the toy department, and with the exception of the new Wetherspoons by the Castle I'm yet to find acceptable changing facilities; unlockable doors, broken chairs and stinking overflowing nappy bins are the norm. Reading, Newbury and Bicester are all better options.
simplicissimus
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6:59pm Sat 4 Sep 10
Remember: not ONE Tory councillor sits in our Town Hall! It's filled with the likes of Ed "squander £4 million in known dodgy Icelandic banks" Turner, and John "storm out on other elected members, especially the excellent Stuart Craft" Tanner.
Oxford's council wouldn't understand democratic representation if it bit them in the bum! And we badly need more people from other walks of life, with good common sense, from more diverse partries, including for instance IWCA, Tories, 3rd Way(UK), &c, as a healthy leaven...
Volterra
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11:25pm Sat 4 Sep 10
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
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4:04am Sun 5 Sep 10
Volterra wrote:God Volty talk about missing the point. London is a capital City, Oxford is a backward town with with a load of numptys in charge (mostly from the uni) who haven't got a clue how to run 10 yards, yet a town. P.S. London also has a new fangled thingy called the UNDERGROUND that helps the shoppers get to Oxford Street.
Oxford is not a shopping destination in the way that other surrounding cities are and at the same time they are not leisure/tourism destinations the way Oxford is. Swings and roundabouts. Oxford is an ancient city whose roads were not designed for 21st century mass traffic. This is not necessarily a bad thing. London has a congestion charge of £8 per day (not including parking) but I doubt Oxford Street is doing anything but good business, as usual.
sparky123456
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2:48pm Mon 6 Sep 10
Volterra wrote:I'd say you're wrong. Oxford is a city with 125k+ residents who have a need and want to shop plus it has millions of tourists who visit each year and when they've finished their visit they also like to shop and eat. The fact the city is ancient shouldnt make a difference either, Bath, Winchester, Cambridge - all ancient towns that have managed to combine shopping with tourism.
Oxford is not a shopping destination in the way that other surrounding cities are and at the same time they are not leisure/tourism destinations the way Oxford is. Swings and roundabouts. Oxford is an ancient city whose roads were not designed for 21st century mass traffic. This is not necessarily a bad thing. London has a congestion charge of £8 per day (not including parking) but I doubt Oxford Street is doing anything but good business, as usual.
terrytowel
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8:40pm Mon 6 Sep 10
I prefer to shop where there is free parking, no snotty foreign school groups, benefit receiving 'homeless' beggars groping solitary Big Issues (or real sellers demanding change), no blue meanies waiting to slap a ticket on your car and my chosen place to spend my pennies must have a Greggs. The Cornish pasty place is nice but only tourists fork out £3 for one!
John Charles
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8:45pm Mon 6 Sep 10
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