Four Shires Magazine

Cherwell district Council is seeking to respond to local newspaper criticism of its hike in council car park costs. It is proclaiming that the Council's car parks are the cheapest in town - even after the price increases are applied.
Cherwell’s executive decided at its meeting this month to add 10p an hour to the cost of the pay and display parking tariff in the council's Banbury and Bicester car parks.
This is the first change to the council's hourly car parking rate since 2003. It means that the cost of two hour's parking in Banbury will be £1.40 - significantly less than private parking provision in the town. Two hours in the NCP Matalan car park, for example, would cost £2.90  - almost the same as a whole day’s parking in a site operated by the council.
Calls for an increase in charges arose from the council's Resources and Performance Scrutiny Panel, which recommended an annual review of all fees charged by the council.
Barry Wood, leader of the council reassured residents parking charges would not rise again for some time. He explained, "It makes practical sense to increase fees in 10p units, which is one of the reasons we haven’t made an increase for more than six years. It will be some time before we need to increase these fees again.”
Councillor Nigel Morris, portfolio holder for urban and rural services, said: "The council's car parks are still a bargain compared to the private sector. We've worked hard not to increase these charges for many years, but this small change will help us to keep council tax increases as low as possible. This increase effectively helps keep £6 off Band D property council tax. Increasing car park charges means only those using the service pay for it - not everyone, which is much fairer. The council's car parks still represent safe, secure and excellent value parking."
There was also a promise from Councillor Wood that if higher parking charges proved to be bad for business in the district they would be reviewed." We are always careful to monitor the effect of our actions and will be watching the impact of this increase carefully. If there is a demonstrable impact on car park usage in council run car parks which is having negative impact on businesses we will review the charges again."
All of Cherwell District Council's car parks have been awarded the ParkMark, the quality standard awarded by the British Parking Association as part of its Safer Parking scheme, and have provision for users to pay for their parking by mobile phone.
Executive members agreed increases to parking charges will take effect from 31 January to avoid any impact on Christmas shopping or the January sales.