Free parking agreed for all care workers

NHS and care workers will not have to pay to use Chichester’s Northgate car park until April 2021.

The news was shared during a virtual meeting of the district council’s cabinet last Tuesday where a number of incentives were detailed to attract drivers as the lockdown eases.

The initial suggestion was only for NHS workers to be allowed to park free of charge but members agreed with advice from the overview and scrutiny committee that care workers should be included.

Money from car parks makes up a significant portion of the council’s income and the finances were hit hard when charges were suspended in March.

The incentives will come into play when charging returns on June 8.

There will be free parking at the Avenue De Chartres car park every Saturday and Sunday for three months and customers who use the Mipermit app will get one hour of free parking when they pay for two hours – also for three months.

Free parking at Northgate in Chichester is one council incentive

Martyn Bell, cabinet member for growth, regeneration and place, said: “It’s a difficult balance between the urgent need to start generating revenue from our car parks for our vital services and supporting the NHS, supporting our retail and other businesses in the city centre, keeping things in line with our green agenda – and very importantly there is a safety incentive in this as well for people to use Mipermit.”

Some members were surprised by the low take-up of the app at six per cent of the income before the lockdown.

They were told more would

be done to promote the app, which would help social distancing as customers had no need to use machines.

A report to the cabinet said: “As social distancing measures will need to be in place for some time, each car park will be considered on a case by case basis to determine what measures need to be employed to assist with social distancing.

“Enhanced cleaning and sanitising of parking equipment will be undertaken and customers will be further encouraged to use [Mipermit], contactless payment or season tickets to pay for their parking.”