Why a Belfast City Council committee has voted to end free parking at Christmas

Last Christmas, Belfast City Council offered nearly 1,500 car parking spaces across the city.

The free evening and weekend parking at 17 off-street sites, including Corporation Square, Cromac Street and Hope Street North, was aimed at increasing footfall into the city centre to support businesses.

Ahead of the decision last year, the council estimated the cost of the move at more than £36,000.

But now the council’s City Growth and Regeneration Committee has voted to reverse that policy and end the free car parking this Christmas. The proposal is to go before the full council next month.

It seems like something that could be an unpopular move with Christmas shoppers - but Translink says it will actually ease congestion in the city centre streets at one of the busiest times of the year.

Not only that, but the transport company says ending the free parking should also ease the disruption caused to its own services by congested roads.

Translink’s Group Chief Executive, Chris Conway, said the free parking cost his company an additional £250,000 because of the extra resources needed to cope with additional running time, due to the queues at car park entrances and the drivers circulating round city centre streets in search of free spaces.

In a letter to Belfast City Council, he said particular congestion hotspots were at Chichester Street and Victoria Street.

Mr Conway said that in 2013 and 2014, the congestion levels eased when additional weekend park and ride services and discounted fares were offered instead.

But the return of the free parking last year meant extra traffic which had a “significant impact” on the performance of Translink bus services, he said.

The Passenger’s Charter requires that 99.2% of planned services should operate, but in December 2015 this plunged to 97.4%, significantly below previous years. More than 2,000 services were recorded as not operating in that month due to service disruption.

The Passenger’s Charter also requires that 95% of services run on time, but this plummeted to 84% in December last year. Meanwhile, customer complaints grew by 28% in the pre-Christmas period due to service disruption.

Mr Conway estimated that not only did it cost Translink an extra £250,000 to deal with additional running time but the company also carried 64% fewer passengers on its Saturday park and ride services compared to the same time the previous year.

“Our assessment is that if Translink experienced these problems, then undoubtedly car users did too,” Mr Conway said.

“Free parking spaces, available after 6pm and all day Saturday and Sunday, seemed to be taken up fairly quickly.As a result users had to regularly wait in long queues or instead circulate looking for spaces at alternative commercial car parks, further impacting on traffic progression round the city.

“Furthermore, many shoppers were unaware that free parking was evenings only during the week, which also caused traffic congestion even before the normal rush hour period and may have deterred people from coming into the city to shop later in the evening.”

Mr Conway proposes that instead of the free parking, a set of offers could be agreed for people using park and ride and Metro services, such as in-store discounts for shoppers showing their travel ticket.

He also suggests working with car park operators to advertise the number of spaces left in the city at park and ride facilities so that people know the situation before they drive in.

PUP councillor John Kyle said the committee’s decision was the right one.

"I think it will result in more consumers coming into the city centre," he told the BBC.

"It will make public transport easier to use and I think it will increase the footfall without creating congestion and frustration in the city centre."

But DUP councillor Tom Haire disagreed.

"I know there are people in country areas who would normally come into Belfast and they don't know where to go," he said.

"They're confused with the bus lanes to start with and people are staying away from it.

"We want to encourage them to come in and I would support free car parking coming up to Christmas."

Gordon McElroy, president of Belfast's Chamber of Commerce, said the solution from Translink was a "win-win".

He said that the while the car parking scheme was "successful" it only applied to council-owned spaces, which make up 1,500 of the 28,000 parking spaces in Belfast.

"The important thing out of this story is to make sure people understand Belfast is a really good destination to come and shop," he said..