Parking charge increases for city centre

Ted Peskett Local Democracy Reporter

Car parking is set to go up by an average of £1 in a city centre.

Cardiff Council has proposed a number of new fees and charges which will come into force this year as part of its plan to save tens of millions of pounds.

Some of these include increasing the cost of parking at its car parks and increasing the cost of parking permits.

Free parking removal

Changes to on-street pay and display car parking, council-owned car park charges, and permit costs will come into force on April 15.

Free car parking will also be removed from council-owned car parks and on-street pay and display but this will not take place until winter 2024 as it requires what is called a traffic regulation order (TRO) to come into force.

This can take between six and nine months to complete.

A closer look at the changes

There will be an average increase of car parking charges at Cardiff Council car parks and on-street parking of £1 per hour in the city centre and 50p in city districts.

In the outer city centre the cost of car parking will go up by 90p.

This means that it will cost £3.50 to park at a council car park or on-street parking in the outer city centre for an hour, £4.50 for two hours, £5.50 for three hours, and £6.50 for four hours.

It currently costs £24 for a first residential parking permit and visitor permit in Cardiff. However this will go up by 25% and result in a new fee of £30 going forward.

A second residential permit and visitor permit in the city will go from £54 to £80.

The cost of 850 hours of visitor parking through the digital permit portal that the council uses for certain streets, MiPermit, is £9.

This is increasing in cost by 233%, taking the new cost of digital visitor permits per 850 hours to £30.

The cost of business parking permits will be going up from £24 to £30 and community parking permits will go up from £10 to £30.

There are also new charges coming into place for specific types of parking permit.

Car parking permits for staff at Penylan Library will cost £20 in the 2024-25 financial year.

There will also be a permit for essential school staff, which will cost £30.

Fees

Changes are being made to car parking fees at the council’s Havannah Street car park.

It currently costs £2.10 for one hour there followed by a £3.40 charge for two hours, £4.10 for three hours, £5.10 for four hours, and £6.10 for five hours.

The charge will increase by 30p for these hours apart from the two-hour charge which will remain the same.

The £8.60 charge at the Havannah Street car park for a six-hour stay will decrease in price by 60p.

Paying for a seven-hour, nine-hour, or 11-hour stay will no longer be an option and it will cost £9, £11, and £14 for an eight-hour, 10-hour, or 12-hour stay respectively.

It will also cost to park at the Havannah Street car park from 6pm to midnight from the next financial year.

A one-hour stay will be £1.20 and this will increase by 50p per hour.

Budget gap

Cardiff Council faces a budget gap of £30m this year due to a number of factors including rising costs and an increasing demand on its services.

The local authority passed its budget proposals for the 2024-25 financial year at a full council meeting on Thursday, March 7.

Other fees and charges that are increasing across the city include burial charges, the cost of school meals, sports pitch hire, and council tax.

Changes will also be made to the way the council carries out some of its services.

There will be changes to library and hub operating hours and black bin collections will be carried out once every three weeks across the city.