HOURLY CHARGE FOR STOCKPORT CARPARKS

In bid to boost the economy in the town and district centres Stockport Council is introducing an hourly charge for car parks.

The introduction of an hourly charge at Council run car parks will allow people to easily extend their parking time in one hour slots. This will encourage them to spend more time in the town and district centres.

The Council has recently introduced a pay by mobile phone payment option for its pay and display car parks. This allows people to pay to park, through their phone/mobile device as a cashless payment but also gives them the chance to extend their parking period without returning to the vehicle.

In March 2014 further changes are planned to the systems of payment for parking with pay on foot being put in to operation for the Merseyway car park.

Councillor Iain Roberts, Stockport Council’s Executive Member for Economic Development and Regeneration, said:

“We’ve listened to people’s views from the parking consultation in 2012 and feel the introduction of a standard hourly charge for all Council car parks will help boost the economy in the town and district centres. “To ensure we get the greatest benefit from these changes the car parking tariffs need to be amended to ensure all paid car parking has a one hour tariff that increases in standard increments.

This adjustment will ensure that the payment options are as flexible as possible and that the charges are easy to understand for people.” The current time increments do not allow the necessary flexibility to make the ability to extend visitor stay attractive to car park users.

The new parking tariffs will come into effect from Monday 14th October 2013.