Parking charges review aims to support town centres

Parking charges in Tameside have been reviewed as part of a wider improvement plan to modernise payment methods and ensure tariffs support town centres.

Tameside Council Executive Cabinet this week approved new tariffs to create a ‘shoppers’ charter’, encouraging short stay use by charging a reasonable fee for 1-3 hours to help ensure a high turn over of customers and increase space availability – by discouraging long stay use - in the most sought after and central parking spots.

Commuters, workers and business owners will be encouraged to use the long stay car parks, which will have an all-day charge of £4 which is lower than the more central short stay car parks.

The rates will bring Tameside more in line with parking charges in other Greater Manchester boroughs and should help to increase the income available to fund highways improvements in the borough such as pot hole repairs.

They also represent a more simplified tariff: charging on an hourly basis up to 3 hours, then all day and offering a flat rate of just £1 for evenings and Sundays

The review comes as part of a three phase improvement plan, approved earlier in the year, which will also see payment machines upgraded by the early autumn to accept both card and cash payments to make it easy and convenient for people to use the car parks.

The third step of the plan is to agree a longer-term parking strategy that aligns the plan for car parks with wider strategies to support the local community and businesses, such as inclusive growth, town centre masterplans and housing.

The new charges are set out here and will come into effect from 2 August 2023.

Tameside Council Executive Member for Planning, Transport and Connectivity Cllr Jan Jackson said: “Car parks provide a critical infrastructure for residents and businesses in the borough, providing convenient parking to enable access to both our local facilities and transport links.

“We know shoppers want it to be as easy as possible for them to stop off and shop in their town centres and the new tariffs will encourage short stay use, increasing space availability within these most sought after spaces and discouraging long stay use in the most convenient car parks for visitors to shop and support local businesses.

“This - coupled with the upgraded machines due to follow in the autumn which will offer a cashless option – should make it convenient for shoppers to use town centre car parks and support local traders.

“The charges are in line with other Greater Manchester authorities and any additional income generated will be used to boost our limited highways budget to improve local roads, to make our car parks sustainable in the future.”