Free parking confirmed for city centre in festive run-up

Nicholas Thomas Local Democracy Reporter

Free parking will be available in seven car parks on Saturdays in the run-up to Christmas, a Welsh city council has confirmed.

The initiative launches on November 15 to coincide with the Countdown to Christmas event, which includes the switching-on of the city centre’s Christmas lights by pop and TV star Peter Andre.

That event kicks off a busy festive calendar in the city centre, which also boasts a Christmas market in the city centre, the return of the Winter Wonderland ice rink and fairground in Usk Way, Santa workshops, a pantomime in the Riverfront Theatre, and events in the Kingsway shopping centre.

Parking will be free that day, and for the next six Saturdays, at council-owned car parks in Emlyn Street, Faulkner Road, Hill Street, Kingsway, Park Square, Riverfront and Stow Hill.

A council report shows the initiative will cost the equivalent of £40,000 in lost parking income, but can be funded from an expected budget underspend.

The scheme has been welcomed by Newport’s mayor for 2025/26, Labour councillor Kate Thomas, whose Stow Hill ward covers the city centre.

“I welcome this initiative to provide free parking in NCC car parks during the Christmas period,” she said during a recent consultation on the free parking proposal.

“This demonstrates the commitment which the council have to support the retail sector in the city centre,” added Cllr Thomas, who will be helping switch on the Christmas lights at Saturday’s Countdown event.

The consultation also drew comments from two Conservative councillors, including Cllr Matthew Evans, who leads that party’s opposition group.

He said he would “very much welcome” free parking as a “step in the right direction”, but urged the council to “go further” and extend the offer to two free hours on each weekday.

But in a report, the council said “any further extension of the free parking scheme is not affordable”.

The council said it maintained nearly 200 on-street parking spaces around the city centre, for periods of between 20 minutes and two hours, and was also supporting other events to improve festive footfall – from Christmas markets to the Small Business Saturday promotion.

It also noted the launch of a new £13 Newport Bus all-day app-exclusive ticket, allowing groups of four to travel together all day around the city.

Cllr Will Routley encouraged the local authority to consider three free hours’ parking each on seven Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in the weeks before Christmas.

He proposed the measure would provide more flexibility to busy residents, and contribute to “significantly enhancing shopper engagement and spreading economic benefit more widely”.

But the council said the advantage of its all-day Saturday proposal “is that it offers visitors the ability to access the City’s full offer, including retail and leisure, without any restrictions on their time to do so, encouraging use of a wider range of facilities and increasing dwell time”.

The council also said the three-hour, three-day idea put forward by Cllr Routley would be “unaffordable”.