Business concern over parking charge remarks

22 August 2008

A government minister has come under fire for suggesting that there is scope for an increase in parking charges for built-up areas.

Addressing a Local Government Association conference, John Healy, the minister for local government, said that councils have yet to explore the full potential for the scale of parking fees charged in densely urbanised areas.

Business groups, however, expressed their alarm at any moves to charge more for city or town centre parking, claiming it would hit business activity.

David Frost, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “Charging more for parking will simply displace potential customers elsewhere where it costs less to park. Mr Healey’s comments go completely against his own department’s ambition to regenerate and attract people to urban centres.”

The Federation of Small Businesses argued that where there was free parking high streets tended to thrive.