Little regard for drivers

I have recently returned from a holiday in Bruges, a beautiful historic city which attracts many tourists.

Unlike Sunderland, it also has a very prosperous city centre containing an enormous range of very upmarket international designer shops and many other specialist retailers.

It therefore was a surprise to find that an hour’s parking in the public underground car park next to my hotel in the city centre cost one euro 40 cents, cheaper than either The Bridges or St Mary’s!

Last year I undertook a study of Sunderland’s multistorey car parks for Sunderland Civic Society and found they were under-used, with an overall average occupancy of 66% in The Bridges and 48% in St Mary’s. I then compared the cost of parking in multi-storey car parks in Sunderland with other centres in the North East.

Other than Newcastle, which after all is the regional centre, Sunderland emerged as the most expensive.

In Middlesbrough, a town which, unlike Sunderland, still has a very decent shopping centre, the first two hours in a council multi-storey were found to be free, after which the cost was just £1 per hour. At that time, two hours in either The Bridges or St Mary’s car parks would have cost £2.80.

I put these findings to the council, arguing that if parking charges were reduced it could attract more car borne shoppers into the city centre leading to a better use of car parks and that if this happened, revenue from parking charges may not decline.

I did not receive a satisfactory response and the council has actually increased charges this year, despite having apparently made a significant profit from them last year.

Why should parking charges in Sunderland be higher than in Bruges?

Why should they be more expensive than Middlesbrough? I am not suggesting that parking charges alone

are responsible for the relative decline in Sunderland’s shopping offer in recent years, but it will doubtless be a contributing factor, and one which is within the control of the council.

However, unfortunately they seem to regard ever higher charges as their prime objective, rather than reducing charges to bring in more car borne shoppers thereby helping revitalise the city centre.

Who knows, but it is possible that increased use of the car parks with lower charges might result in a similar revenue as those of today.

John Tumman