Under new city-centre parking charges, Manchester shoppers will have to pay £2.70 an hour starting next month. The increase is as high as 20% in some locations and completes a triple-whammy for motorists, after hearing earlier in the year that the local council planned to institute charges for on street parking on Sundays, something that never before annoyed Sunday drivers, and on street charges will be extended to cover 7am to 7pm.
Manchester council’s director of neighborhood service, Vicky Rosin, has said that the on street charges have remained the same for six years in the city centre. The idea is to make sure the limited amount of on street parking is available to motorists that want to make quick short visits to the centre and to reduce congestion because of regular turnover of spaces. The increase makes parking more expensive than in Birmingham and Leeds.
The most expensive car park in the city is £6.80 an hour at the King Street West and it is only £9.50 for four hours of car park in Great Northern in zone three. The city’s Liberal Democrats councilors are calling for further scrutiny saying that not only have they extended the hours they charge, they charge on Sundays and now they are adding increases on top of that.
This has caused residents to be up in arms and the charges will make people want to come and shop in the area less and less making it difficult for the city to compete with other out of town city centers.
