Street parking to increase to 70p per hour in Beckenham

Bromley Council are to introduce a “new pattern” of parking charges this spring. This will increase street parking in Beckenham to 70p per hour. We have been contacted by residents worried that increased parking costs will dissuade shoppers from visiting our high street and local shopping parades. Should the Council be raising parking charges at a time when small business need their support?  See News Shopper article and Bromley Council News Release.

The Councils Environment Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee is responsible for the new parking charges and our local councillor Stephen Wells is on this committee.

The details of the proposal can be found on the Councils website:

Parking charges

The following extract from proposal covers Beckenham.

“4.6 Charging Group 3: On-Street Parking outside Bromley town centre
4.6.1 As with other on-street charges, prices must be set for traffic management reasons, for example to ration available space and ensure that there is a rapid turnover of parking spaces.
4.6.2 Current charge rates vary from 30p to 60p per hour. Maximum stay periods of 2 to 10 hours assist in controlling differential levels of demand for particular parking locations, depending on their purpose; no changes to these are proposed. It is recommended that hourly charge rates move to:

• 70p per hour in Orpington and Beckenham town centres
• 60p per hour in most other ‘high street’ shopping locations
• 50p per hour elsewhere

4.6.3 Where specific parking schemes have been introduced more recently, for example in Clock House, Copers Cope, and Shortlands, it is proposed that charges be considered as part of the scheduled review of those schemes.

4.7 Charging Group 4: Off-Street Car Parks outside Bromley town centre
4.7.1 Existing hourly charge rates in these car parks vary from 20p to 40p per hour. It is proposed that all these car parks should move to a rate of 30p per hour where they support small shopping parades, 40p per hour where medium shopping parades are supported, and 50p per hour near larger parades. 30p would become the standard charge for commuter car parks.
4.7.2 It is proposed that the charge for parking over 4 hours should be capped at £1.50 (for smaller station car parks); £2.00 (for small shopping parades); £3.50 (for Chelsfield Station and medium shopping parades); and £4 (for larger shopping parades).”

Source: Bromley Council, http://cds.bromley.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=13248