The Isle of Wight Council is proposing to introduce all-year-round parking charges on Esplanades across the Island, as well as increasing the cost of on-street, car park and permit parking.
Under the budget proposals for 2020/21, motorists will have to pay to park on empty Esplanades in the dead of winter – much like Ryde residents have been forced to do for the past few years. The new charges will affect Culver Parade, Sandown, Shanklin, Ventnor, Cowes and Gurnard and will generate an estimated £58,000 for the council. It is said that extending the charges may support a ‘higher turnover of spaces’ and may also ‘encourage drivers not to park on the street and use car parks to improve the free flow of traffic’.
The authority is also planning to increase the cost of parking in short stay and long stay car parks by around 20p per hour. A stay of 3 hours in a short stay car park will cost £5.10, whilst 10 hours in a long stay will cost £9.00.
Those who regularly park on-street won’t escape the price increases. All resident and tourist permits are set to be increased by 20%, whilst all Island and supplementary parking permits will be merged into a single permit costing up to £600 a year. A flat £2.00 fee is also set to be introduced at Cowes Park and Ride.
On-street parking is also affected by the budget proposals. Drivers could soon be able to to pay £1.00 for 30 minutes parking in on-street locations, but charges for longer periods are set to be increased. The Isle of Wight Council says the move is aimed at supporting businesses and boosting local trade and will help people who want to pull up, nip in 1 or 2 shops and then be on their way again.
Newport High Street is the only high street on the Island where motorists pay to park. The minimum stay is currently 1 hour at £1.50. Should the plans be approved, it will cost £1.00 for 30 minutes, £2.00 for up to 1 hour and £4.00 for up to 2 hours – an increase of £1.00. The fees will apply to all chargeable on-street parking.
Councillor Ian Ward, cabinet member for infrastructure and highways, has said the proposed changes are designed to make parking charges fairer and simpler across the Island, ahead of a detailed review of parking facilities and fees which is due to report in May. He has said increases are ‘proportionate’ and helped to promote the use of sustainable transport.
Cllr Ward has said:
“We want to do as much as we possibly can to help our local businesses thrive against the challenge of online shopping by encouraging people to shop local. Thirty minute parking for those who simply want to pull up, and nip in one or two shops is something businesses in Newport have been crying out for.
“We hope our proposals will generate more passing trade and promote a higher turnover of spaces which we know is so important to improving the vitality and viability of the high street.”
“The council continues to be committed to supporting the future vibrancy and viability of the Island’s high streets.
“Over the past 12 months we have suspended parking charges during the weekends leading up to Christmas, undertaken a range of town centre promotion and improvement projects and worked with town councils and business associations in Newport and Ryde to attract £1 million in government funding from the Heritage High Street programme.
“This includes committing £500,000 in match funding to projects designed to improve the high street environment.”
Free parking will be maintained on high streets in Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor to support the business community in those areas.
Went to Rhos on Sea yesterday. Free parking along sea front all the way including Colwyn Bay. Hundreds of cars parked, dog walkers on beach, all cafes open and quite full for lunches. All toilets open. Meanwhile on the deserted esplanades of the IoW. Livelier in Chernobyl. IW Council have no idea how to attract people out and to.spend money in local businesses.
Go to Ryde in winter and see that it is deserted and if that is how you would like to see the rest of the island then go ahead and introduce the new parking charges
The towns are struggling to make a living now with empty carparks this will drive trade to the super markets out of town
Astonished to read that our hard-pressed high streets are going to have the further challenge of higher parking charges. Wow. And the 30-minute idea – a rural community, who of us drives all that way for 30 mins??! And the comment re promoting sustainable transport??! I’d love to see the research that underpins that. Has that guy ever tried to use the buses on the island? Hahahaha
Interesting that there is an estimate of £58,000 revenue to be had from the proposed additional fleecing of motorists. On what is this estimate based? If parking is free, and therefore has no requirement for Civil EnforceMent Officers to patrol how can this number have any basis in reality?
Also, and I know this will be controversial, why not approach Central Government and get the T&C’s for Blue Badge Holders changed so they also have to pay for on-street pay-and-display parking. At present they are entitled to free parking in these places, however, Council run car parks can charge Blue Badge Holders, however, to just charge in car parks would only drive Badge Holders onto the pay-and-display bays on the road. At any time during the summer, and also at other times of the year, at least 25 to 30 percent of on-street bays are taken up bu non-paying vehicles. Before people cry foul, I am aware there is a (nominal) charge for a Blue Badge, but sorry, this is far out-weighed by all of the free parking available, not to say the totally inconsiderate parking that a lot of Blue Badge Holders also adopt in parking where ever they please!
And they wonder why nobody visits, which dim wit is making these decisions , bet they don’t pay for parking
I think you will find they get issued ‘FREE PERMITS’. How about they pay even when they are attending on council business and claim the money back as a reasonable expense?”
Goodbye to Sunday morning coffee on the seafront, goodbye to shopping trips into the towns……..goodbye to the High Street and goodbye to £58,000 of imaginary extra income.
The council can’t play the public for a fool if the public don’t play.
And how much parking revenue is lost through this councils insistence on free parking for blue badge holders?
Revenue that could go towards the care services being cut.
Greedy Council Tax.. Hate them….
On an already expensive island this move is outrageous ! How do they think that charging to park all year round on the esplanades is going to encourage business ? As usual this council can simply ignore the will of the people and impose parking charges way above inflation, without a care in the world. It seems the inflation rate is only in place to keep employees salaries down.
Someone has to pay for Adult social care, like those low life in the Foyer, those homeless contributing nothing to society, those children who are mentally impaired in places like Ryde house and Haylands Farm.
All the children who cost us more to have simple ones in mainstream education being a pain to other normal students and have to have one to one costly helpers
All the odd people taken of social days out by a couple of paid helpers.
Let those who bred such take and look after their own produce, or get charities to pay for any ‘extras’ we should only fund medical, NOT social pleasures for ner’e do wells, who only ‘take’ and will never pay in a bean.
Isle of Wight Councillors received £474,488 in allowances and expenses last year — an increase of more than £13,000 compared with the previous year.
According to the 2018/19 figures, which have just been published, councillors received £314,160 in basic allowances, £130,725 in special responsibility allowances — awarded to councillors who hold senior roles, such as cabinet members and committee chairs — and £28,880 in expenses.
Councillors will also receive a 2% pay rise this year. In 2018/19, councillors were entitled to a basic allowance of £7,854. From April 1 this year, that has risen to £8,011.
The special responsibility allowance has also risen from £7,854 to £8,011.
Council leader Cllr Dave Stewart received the biggest payout last year — £1,000 more than the previous year. He received £26,406, which included his basic allowance, a £15,708 special responsibility allowance as council leader and travel expenses of almost £3,000.
Eleven councillors received more than £15,000 — including cabinet members Cllrs Clare Mosdell and Ian Ward, who received more than £17,500 each.
Cllr Modsell also claimed more than £400 for hotel accommodation — one of only three councillors to do so. Cllr Stewart and cabinet member Cllr Paul Brading also claimed £73 and £98 for hotel accommodation, respectively.
Deputy leader Cllr Stuart Hutchinson received £18,835.
Cllr Vanessa Churchman, the ward member for Havenstreet, Ashey and Haylands, claimed £1,681 in travel expenses — the fourth largest amount — even though she does not hold a senior role. She attributed her expenses to attending events on behalf on Cllr Ward when he was unwell.
All councillors are entitled to claim expenses for travel and subsistence. Childcare expenses are also available, but no councillors claimed them last year.
In 2016, when the Island Independents were in charge at County Hall, councillors agreed to take a pay cut. Since then, allowances have risen steadily.
Are the councillors are allowed to claim for ‘entertainment’. I trust this does not include alcoholic beverages. Alcohol is not a necessary expense, and not a legitimate use of my rates.
This will bring Sandown back to life ! Lol
If they sack one of the fat cats, that would cover the estimated £58K extra income they will rake in. Plenty of them sitting on their butts doing not a lot..
Everybody moans about this lot in county hall so who voted them back in power to carry on ripping us off and upping there wages
They’re all the same. Doesn’t matter who you vote in they all fleece us one way or another
The thing is that you are all paying council tax that is then spent on parking meters and other things they can charge you for ,so they can charge you even more using your own money !!
And how much business rates will the council lose because businesses on these esplanades who struggle to stay open during the winter are forced to close because locals will no longer visit because of the additional cost of parking?
exactly – they put up parking charges, so people do not bother shopping there, the business closes, the council loses the revenue from the business rates and doesn’t get any parking revenue either – so they gripe about making cuts to frontline services as they are short of cash, yet never cut their own expenses and salary budgets.
“The council continues to be committed to supporting the future vibrancy and viability of the Island’s high streets. They have a damn funny way of showing this as they seem determined to drive all visitors away.
Councillor Ian Ward, cabinet member for infrastructure and highways, has said the proposed changes are designed to make parking charges fairer and simpler across the Island, ahead of a detailed review of parking facilities and fees which is due to report in May. He has said increases are ‘proportionate’ and helped to promote the use of sustainable transport. What sustainable transport? I live in St Lawrence which has a little local bus into Ventnor 3 times each weekday morning subsidised by Ventnor Town Council, for which we are grateful, unless it happens to be a bank holiday when there isn’t one. Though it is very useful todo shopping in Ventnor It doesn’t give you time to visit anywhere else on the Island and get back to Ventnor before the last little bus at 12.05. This means I HAVE to use my car to get anywhere else on the Island. So much for Councilor Ian Ward”s sustainable transport. I suggest he gets out of his office and leaves his car in the car park paying the council’s daylight robbery car parking charges and find out just what rubbish his sustainable transport is if you want to get somewhere away from Southern Vectis’s limited number of routes.These councilors in their little ivory towers and fancy cars have no idea what life is like for the rest of us
Cllr Ward has said: “Thirty minute parking for those who simply want to pull up, and nip in one or two shops is something businesses in Newport have been crying out for.”
In think the businesses were more thinking of 30 minutes ‘FREE-PARKING” ‘cos it’s not fair to be expected to pay for a whole hour when you’re only going to be 5 minutes’
So instead, the council has just reduced the time period so there’s less excuse not to pay
If the minimum charge period is now 30 minutes, how much, of the extra money expected to be raised, will be spent on increasing patrols to catch the unwary who stay a few minutes over ?
Most of it probably….
Disgusting. Using the motorist as a cash cow as always. Another nail in the coffin for businesses. Can’t wait until the council election come around.
Won’t make any difference whoever gets in. They will still do what they want no matter what we the public they serve want.
It is so short sighted of IWCC. They need to see how other seaside towns that have free or reasonably priced parking have thriving businesses, lots of people spending money and exercising dogs and themselves. The Island is a beautiful place, but the council needs to have a coherent policy for promoting tourism.