Parking ‘summer season’ starts early in Brighton and Hove

12:10pm Wednesday 20th March 2013 in News By Tim Ridgway, Local government reporter

Winter parking charges in Madeira Drive Winter parking charges in Madeira Drive

Snow may have been on the ground a week ago, and the Easter holidays are still not under way.

But for Brighton and Hove City Council’s parking team, summer has already started.

After listening to public outcry and The Argus’s Park The Charges campaign, the local authority agreed to reduce its £20-a-day tariffs in Madeira Drive on Brighton seafront.

However, to ensure it does not lose out on revenue, council bosses moved the start of the traditional summer season from April 1 to March 1.

With charges rising from £1 to £3 an hour overnight, some motorists have complained that the new policy has left them out of pocket.

Manny Weinstein, of Shanklin Road, Brighton, said: “I can understand that a busy city like ours needs a parking strategy.

“But a seafront parking charge hike of huge proportions, just in time for the Easter visitors, smacks of opportunism and verges on blatant profiteering. Where’s the strategy in that?”

Winter charges for the seafront stretch west of the Madeira Lift are £1 for an hour, £2 for two hours and £7 for 11 hours.

Summer increases

Last year summer charges, which ran from April 1 to the end of September, were £3.50 for an hour, £6 for two hours and £20 for 11 hours.

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The council has since changed this to £3, £5 and £15 respectively, but has extended the season by two months, from March to October.

Conservative councillor Graham Cox said: “In what seems like the longest winter for years it is absolute folly to be bringing in summer charges now, particularly with the Easter break just around the corner.

"Once again, this is all about maximising revenue for the council rather than trying to encourage visitors and help local businesses.

'Ripped off'

“It adds to the impression once again that visitors to Brighton are being ripped off.”

A council spokeswoman said the change was to “offset the impact of the reduced tariff”.

She added: “At the end of last year the council worked constructively with the seafront traders on Madeira Drive and hoteliers in New Steine to reach a solution on parking charges.

“It resulted in the council reducing charges in the high tariff area by 22%.”

She added the charges had been advertised, covered by the media and agreed at a public meeting.

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Comments(26)

Mr_Tom says...
12:19pm Wed 20 Mar 13

what a surprise.. the council trying to bleed local and visiting motorists dry.. wheres the decent cheap public transport to replace the need for cars in town? or the car parks to take all the visitors? short sighted is a massive understatement.. the sooner these clown realise you need an alternative to town parking the sooner we can get on with improving trade in this town..

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score says...
12:23pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Look at Chester to see how it should be done (http://www.cheshire
westandchester.gov.u
k/residents/transpor
t_and_roads/parking_
and_permits/chester_
parking_promotions.a
spx) - I go into Brighton once aweek and after seeing the prices yesterday you wont see me again until next winter.

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fred clause says...
12:23pm Wed 20 Mar 13

No shock with Kitkat and his green cronies they still think the majority of Brighton is in favour of cycle lanes and 20 mph everywhere so its not like they ever listen to the public is it.

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Martha Gunn says...
12:24pm Wed 20 Mar 13

So now we know that the parking charges 're-think' was just yet more Greenspeak.

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s&k says...
12:29pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Oh, change the record Argus. This story is boring. What other councils/businesses don't do this type of thing? If the Tories are gonna cut spending gotta raise revenue somehow.

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deltaP says...
1:39pm Wed 20 Mar 13

The shower known as the Green Party have but one aim in mind - to make life as difficult for the motorist as possible. Witness, the ridiculous (hyper expensive, un-necessary and grossly under-used) cycle lanes they have created and the even more ridiculous size they intend making the roundabout at Seven Dials. So many of their traffic "improvements" actually create more pollution they should be known as the Black Party.

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Hoarder12345444 says...
2:06pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Doesnt surprise me. I'd advise people to park for free at the marina and walk along. Not a great idea, but saves you paying. You also have to walk past dukes mound with your kids........never pleasant.

Burgess Hill is the place to go.........60p an hour all year round in the town centre! Yeah ok, its not brilliant, but at least its always full of visitors!!

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Fercri Sakes says...
2:15pm Wed 20 Mar 13

How dare the local council compromise! I want them to only do things that will benefit me as I don't care about other people.

Lets build big motorways into the city. I know there's no room for them to park or travel once they actually get into the city itself but if we don't they will take their traffic jams elsewhere which will be bad for the local economy, even if it does reduce my kid's asthma.

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NickBtn says...
3:05pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Parking charges went up last year. Parking revenues FELL yes fell. Putting prices up doesn't mean that income will automatically go up as people have a choice - they can do other things. In our case go to other towns to spend their tourist money. Or if they are coming to Brighton, park a bit out of town and use taxis to go the last bit (yes, enterprising taxis were advertising this service).

Extending the "summer" may also not lead to an increase in revenues and so not achieve the aim stated by the council spokesperson

Let's hope that this is monitored carefully - or the council will end up losing money in addition to all the businesses getting less visitors in the winter months

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kopite_rob says...
3:37pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Who in their right mind goes out with £15 in loose change in their pocket.
And the people that park on the front aren't locals, they'll be out of towners who aren't going to realise until they've parked up and found a highways robbery machine.
At least invest in machines that take debit cards or pay by phone.
I don't even use cash to pay for a paper these days.

Or maybe I'll print off stickers advertising the parking rates in Worthing & Eastbourne to help them decide where to spend the day?

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Crystal Ball says...
3:39pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Park for free on The Downs and walk into Brighton.

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Phani Tikkala says...
4:20pm Wed 20 Mar 13

The Greens really don't get it do they? They treat residents like idiots.

But we can rest assured they've done enough to commit political suicide.

Roll on the Council elections

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Idontbelieveit1948 says...
4:36pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Green councillors speak with forked tongue - but why is anybody surprised.

Another vote and income loser from our very own bunch of Green losers.

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Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit says...
6:36pm Wed 20 Mar 13

NickBtn wrote:
Parking charges went up last year. Parking revenues FELL yes fell. Putting prices up doesn't mean that income will automatically go up as people have a choice - they can do other things. In our case go to other towns to spend their tourist money. Or if they are coming to Brighton, park a bit out of town and use taxis to go the last bit (yes, enterprising taxis were advertising this service).

Extending the "summer" may also not lead to an increase in revenues and so not achieve the aim stated by the council spokesperson

Let's hope that this is monitored carefully - or the council will end up losing money in addition to all the businesses getting less visitors in the winter months
I think you miss the point, the parking charges about revenue, they're to discourage less-affluent visitors. The Council's stated aim is to turn Brighton into a nice middle-class town with nice middle-class residents and nice middle-class visitors. Consequently the prices are set at levels that only nice middle-class people can afford. Poor people can go elsewhere and take their clone stores, stag and hen parties and disgusting takeaway outlets with them.

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Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit says...
6:37pm Wed 20 Mar 13

First sentence should read 'Parking charges AREN'T about revenue.' Soz.

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bikerjimbo says...
8:51pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Earlier today I witnessed the chaos on Lewes Road and as many readers have commented about the single traffic lane being a problem I can confirm this to be the case. There are now slow moving queues both north and south. It then follows that the pollution levels will increase. I think these are measured under som EU dictat so how will the council explain this in the future? But maybe that is the point of the increased parking charges, Keep the cars out of Brighton, problem is the passengers provide revenue in the town to many businesses, businesses pay council taxes but no customers equals no businesses equals no council tax. Let's hope the Greens are out before we go bust.

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Brighton Visitor says...
11:00pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Looks as though I will have to find another (better) beach to take my dog for his special days out.

Brighton is turning into a ghost town rather fast.

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Nellie's Grandson says...
11:06pm Wed 20 Mar 13

This council really are Muppets voted for by Muppets. This is a tourist town, relying on a huge part of its income from tourists why do they want to keep people away? I have said it before about the Regency Society that wants the place to become just like Hastings but the Green Party are just the same, anti progress, anti freedom anti Brighton, live evolves relish the past by all means but embrace the now and future the world and Brighton have changed a lot over the last 200 years, love the environment but don't expect that the car is ever going to be replaced by the horse and cart or Penny Farthing, the are the past, just like the Green Party will be in a couple of years hopefully.

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uwho99 says...
8:15am Thu 21 Mar 13

Visit Brighton this summer where you find miles of empty beaches boarded up cafes arcades and shops and ample parking

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Fercri Sakes says...
9:50am Thu 21 Mar 13

uwho99 wrote:
Visit Brighton this summer where you find miles of empty beaches boarded up cafes arcades and shops and ample parking
Ha ha!! Yes, I'm sure that will be the case. Funny how there was no parking and miles of full beaches when we had that one nice day in late February :)

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BrightonBrowser says...
11:45am Thu 21 Mar 13

Councillor Cox is a Tory Councillor on the Brighton and Hove Council transport Committee which approved the parking season changes. Neither he, nor any of his colleagues said a word of objection to the changes at the Committee meeting or vote against them.

@jastilley

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LargeAndInCharge says...
12:13pm Thu 21 Mar 13

I'm a Brighton resident but this is the reason I always do my weekend shopping in Crawley...

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tradebooker says...
1:09pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Just another example of how the Greens treat B+H residents and more specifically everyone that has a car with utter contempt. They are losing voters by the second with such policies that directly harms the wallet of residents.

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Kate234 says...
2:00pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Another Green tax on jobs on the city. How long before these rich out of touch idiots get kicked out of the city and how many millions is it going to take to repair the damage they have done?

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Fercri Sakes says...
9:14am Fri 22 Mar 13

Ha, what a bunch of moaners. A tax on jobs? How do you work that one out?

Damage they've done? OMG, two cycle lanes!! It's the end of the city as we know it!!

Policies that directly harms the wallet of residents? Compared to other cities there is a much lower proportion of B&H residents that have cars. It's easy to argue that they are actually benefiting residents at the expense of visitors.

And remember that you can't please all the people all the time. As I'm local and I cycle to work I seem to be getting quite a good deal from this administration. That's one car off the road and an extra parking space for somebody, sorry about that ;)

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Dealing with idiots says...
7:54am Sat 23 Mar 13

Fercri Sakes wrote:
Ha, what a bunch of moaners. A tax on jobs? How do you work that one out? Damage they've done? OMG, two cycle lanes!! It's the end of the city as we know it!! Policies that directly harms the wallet of residents? Compared to other cities there is a much lower proportion of B&H residents that have cars. It's easy to argue that they are actually benefiting residents at the expense of visitors. And remember that you can't please all the people all the time. As I'm local and I cycle to work I seem to be getting quite a good deal from this administration. That's one car off the road and an extra parking space for somebody, sorry about that ;)
Thank you councillor Davey.

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