Question:
What has exacerbated the higher increase is that there hasn’t been an increase in car parking charges in Wokingham for nearly five years. Had there been then the increase would not have been such a shock.” Said Cllr Fishwick in his “From the Chamber” article in the Wokingham Today paper on 27th October. This mantra has been repeated many times by Councillor Fishwick and others at meetings, the press and social media.
Using the Bank of England Inflation Calculator, applying accumulative inflation from 2018 until September 2022, you get this data.
Inflation adjusted New Charges
1 hour £0.97 £1.30
2 hour £1.45 £2.50
4 hour £2.34 £4.50
6 hour £3.51 £6.50
0ver 6 hour £4.67 £9.00
It is clear from this chart that the actual inflation adjusted charges are significantly lower than the charges the Liberal Democrat Executive are imposing on our residents and businesses. Apart from the 1-hour rate which is a 34% increase all the others are between 72% and 92%. Clearly your statement about the regular increase not being such a shock is totally wrong. Could you explain how you have got this so dramatically wrong?
Minutes:
“What has exacerbated the higher increase is that there hasn’t been an increase in car parking charges in Wokingham for nearly five years. Had there been then the increase would not have been such a shock.” Said Cllr Fishwick in his “From the Chamber” article in the Wokingham Today paper on 27th October. This mantra has been repeated many times by Cllr Fishwick and others at meetings, the press and social media.
Using the Bank of England Inflation Calculator, applying accumulative inflation from 2018 until September 2022, you get this data.
Inflation adjusted New Charges
1 hour £0.97 £1.30
2 hour £1.45 £2.50
4 hour £2.34 £4.50
6 hour £3.51 £6.50
0ver 6 hour £4.67 £9.00
It is clear from this chart that the actual inflation adjusted charges are significantly lower than the charges the Liberal Democrat Executive are imposing on our residents and businesses. Apart from the 1 hour rate which is a 34% increase all the others are between 72% and 92%. Clearly your statement about the regular increase not being such a shock is totally wrong. Could you explain how you have got this so dramatically wrong?
Answer
On a point of clarification – the figures you have quoted are for Wokingham town, not outside of Wokingham, for example Woodley, which has a lower charge.
The cost of the parking service is around £2.5m. The Council needs to cover the cost of the service by raising revenue funding that will come from parking fees and any shortfall will need to come from other revenue raised, including through Council Tax. A simple increase over the past years in line with inflation, which has not been done, will not cover the costs of operation. Therefore, the service must cover its own costs.
The council finds itself under the severest of financial pressures as do most other local authorities and must look at all aspects to balance its books, which includes parking charges above standard inflation rates. Without these increases, essential services would need to be cut, and we are trying to find ways to protect the most vulnerable in our community.
If the previous administration had raised the car parking charges along the lines that it had proposed to the Community and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 24th November 2021 and looking to raise circa £500,000 in this financial year that would have helped towards covering the majority of the financial hole in the car parking budget that we now have.
Supplementary Question
You have stated that these increased charges will be similar to neighbouring areas which have increased their charges every year and are competitive. There is a new shopping centre in Bracknell called the Lexicon. This complex is massive. Wokingham has nothing remotely like this. The Lexicon runs the car park associated with this complex, called Princess Square. Would it surprise you to know that the charges at Princess Square are all lower than the new charges in the Borough, ranging from 25% to 80% cheaper? For example, one hour would be £1 not £1.30; two hours would be £2 not £2.50; three hours would be £3 not £4.50. Can you explain why anyone would go to Wokingham town centre when they can go to the Lexicon and pay significantly smaller car parking charges?
Supplementary Answer
The car park for the Lexicon shopping centre in Bracknell is, as you said, Princess Square. That is a private area, so it covers its own costs in whatever way it needs to. We need to cover the costs of the car parking and park and ride services on our budget line. That is what we need to cover.