ON-STREET parking charges are to be reduced by Brent Council in an attempt to encourage more people to shop locally.
At an executive meeting on Monday, March 11, councillors voted to reduce the hourly rate of parking from £2.40 to £2 and for shoppers to pay 20p for a short stay of 15 minutes.
Councillor Jim Moher, lead member for highways and transportation and chairman of the highways committee, said he is pleased a raft of new charges will be introduced, which he believes will make the costs fairer.
He told the Observer: “Our roads and our parking system are easy to take for granted, but we must not underestimate how important they are for the success of our economy and community.
“Our aim is to improve the quality of roads in Brent and to reduce the cost of parking in the borough to help our struggling high streets.”
The new payment structure will be a flat rate of £2 per hour, rather than the present system of incrementally more expensive hourly rates.
A new cashless payment method will also be introduced, called RingGo, which allows drivers to pay via their mobile phone for the duration of their stay, meaning they do not have to buy a ticket for a fixed period of time.
People using cash will be subjected to a 50p surcharge, meaning one hour will cost £2.50.
The charges were increased in 2011 after the council’s budget was cut by central government to the tune of £40m and there were fears that parking charges could rise again this year.
However, when the budget was announced by the council in February, the reductions were revealed.
To pay for the measure, councillors agreed to reduce Ward Working money by £10,000, to £30,000.
Mr Moher said: “This had been increased from £20,000 to £40,000 without really thinking it through.
“Many communities don’t know how to spend it.”
Opposition Liberal Democrat councillors claimed in the council report ahead of the executive meeting that there had been a decrease of 24 per cent in the volume of people parking and a reduction in income since the parking charges were increased two years ago.
Lib Dem leader Paul Lorber said: “Traders in our high streets are not going to benefit from much extra trade if customers are continually checking their watches and only have time to pick up a packet of chewing gum.
“Once again Labour has failed to deliver the changes they promised and that local people need.”
Mr Moher also said the council would be investing in cycling after £300,000 was secured from TfL, and that prices for residential parking permits would be restructured and the residential parking permit system will be taken exclusively online.
Brent has also received £20m of funding from government and TfL to improve the state of the roads and pavements.
? In last week’s Observer, we reported that Brent’s Labour group had gone back on its manifesto pledge to introduce one hour free on-street parking. However, this was only promised for council car parks which were not part of the current parking plans. We apologise for the error and any confusion it may have caused.
