WILTSHIRE Council’s cabinet has approved proposals to introduce a 15-minute grace period at council-owned car parks as part of a new county-wide car parking strategy.

The parking review was the largest ever carried out in the county and detailed changes to fees and the designation of long and short stay car parks, before going out to public consultation for 12 weeks from October.

In addition to the Car Parking Strategy draft approved by cabinet today, Deputy Leader of the Council John Thomson proposed a 15-minute “grace period” in council-owned car parks.

The measure, which comes after communities secretary Eric Pickles announced plans for a 10-minute grace period, will see civil enforcement officers wait 15 minutes before issuing a ticket in a move to encourage more shoppers back to town centres.

Cllr Thomson said: “Following the recent announcement from Eric Pickles for a 10-minute grace period, we felt that, to match with other changes in parking policy, we wanted to extend that period to 15 minutes.

“It’s an effective way of giving a discount on parking tickets for people as they get an extra 15 minutes as well as the time they have paid for. It is a positive move for Wiltshire and will hopefully provide a boost to our town centres.”

As part of the car parking review, separate questionnaires were published for each of the 14 towns with council car parks, including a possible charging option for each.

More than 5,000 people and organisations responded to the consultation, with 67.4 per cent of respondents agreeing that the council should set parking charges on a car-park-by-car-park basis rather than a Wiltshire-wide approach.

While the majority of respondents supported the council offering the first hour of parking free and free parking after 4pm, they only did so where local communities are prepared to fund the scheme.

Cllr Thomson added: “I want to thank officers on the huge amount of work they put in to this review, which has been a transparent and open process.”

The consultation also found that 46.3 per cent of people thought the council should invest in new technologies rather than relying on traditional ticket machines and cash payments.

Council officers are considering extending pay-by-phone usage and providing a better deal for users on transaction costs, while pay-on-exit and ANPR are also being considered.

Philip Whitehead, cabinet member for highways, said: “I am really grateful to the thousands of people who took the time to complete the questionnaire, and all the people who attended the workshops we held across the county. We have really taken this on board when putting together these proposals.

“Although we wanted to make sure the solution would be cost neutral, we will now actually be putting money in to reduce car parking fees in those car parks that are currently underused.”

There are many car parks in the county where prices are being held for a further four years – making it eight years in total since any increase. One of the main outcomes could see smaller, underused car parks transferred to parish and town councils or local community groups where there is a local desire.

There was support for first hour free and free after 4pm parking schemes in areas where local communities are prepared to fund the service, but people were clear Wiltshire Council should not introduce higher charges or reduce services to fund these changes.

The council says it will continue to work with local town councils and business and community groups to discuss opportunities for locally funded schemes to be introduced.

Wiltshire Lib Dems have welcomed the u-turn in the council’s approach to parking charges, following the removal of the banding of carparks across the county. 

Group Leader Cllr Jon Hubbard said: “For the past four years I have been saying that it was wrong to have introduced the ‘one-size-fits-approach’ that the Conservatives forced on Wiltshire and I am pleased that they have finally accepted that they were wrong.

“We now need to see further information about how it will be possible for local communities to take ownership of carparks and have the opportunity to bring back the one hour free parking that I, local residents and Chippenham MP Duncan Hames have been campaigning for.

"In this respect the report is lacking in detail, although we do see that the costs of doing this across the county are less than we have been told in the past."