‘Free’ festive parking, but doubts aired

Perthshire shoppers will benefit from free festive parking every Saturday in December in counciloperated car parks.

The move was unanimously approved by councillors, but some concerns were raised.

At a cost of £15,000 to the taxpayer, questions were asked about how worthwhile it was when fewer than a dozen businesses, responding to a survey, said it brought additional footfall.

The council has run the scheme since Christmas 2012 but SNP Strathtay councillor Grant Laing expressed reservations at a lack of “concrete evidence” of its effectiveness.

Executive director of housing and communities Barbara Renton said traders were not keen to share information, saying it was confidential, but she promised to continue to seek “more robust metrics”.

It is estimated running the scheme this year will result in a lost income of about £15,000.

Hunter Hope, parking, public transport and civil contingencies manager, said the council is already around £100,000 to £200,000 short of its car park revenue target for this year due to the pandemic.

Mr Laing said: “I think if we are going to commit taxpayers’ money towards this it is worthwhile this year of all years, we should be doing it.

“It’s really disappointing to see that out of all the businesses in Perth and Kinross which free parking would hopefully incentivise we only have about 11 responding saying it ’ s brought additional footfall for their businesses. So we could justify to the taxpayers of Perth and Kinross it would be good if we had a much larger feedback from the business community.”

Of the 17 businesses which responded ( 13 in Perth) 67% “felt it brought additional footfall to their businesses.”

Pe r t h city centre Conservative councillor Chris Ahern said: “This year will be very different for the city centre with many Christmas events being cancelled. This will have a massive impact on people coming into the city.

“Also people have turned to online shopping during lockdown and many will continue to do so for the Christmas period. Anything that’s done to encourage people to spend in the shops is very welcome...

“A lot of people are still reluctant to use public transpor t so any help would be very welcome.”

Labour Carse of Gowrie councillor Alasdair Bailey approved the move but not without hesitation, saying: “This is by no means free parking. Every taxpayer in Perth and Kinross is paying for it, even those who choose not to drive...

“We are saying we can’t do anything with public transport due to Covid, which I accept. However, those who do choose to walk or cycle to the shops are effectively subsidising those who decide to drive.

“I therefore have serious concerns about the policy especially given we unanimously agreed a climate change emergency just last year.”