Bury St Edmunds parking data revealed to SuffolkNews for West Suffolk Council’s car parks and on-street parking
A business leader is encouraging people to visit a market town and stay as long as possible after he says data suggests more people are ‘just popping in’.
Figures from West Suffolk Council indicate income from its on-street parking locations in Bury St Edmunds reached £719,740 for 2022/23 - £149,678 higher than it was five years ago - while the money made from its car parks in the town is just shy of 2018/19 levels; the draft figure for the last financial year is £3,910,301.
The data, released following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by the Bury Free Press, also showed transactions for on-street parking locations in the town is up on the pre-Covid year of 2018/19, with the figure at 337,849 for the last financial year (up by nearly 50,000) and 355,178 for the year before that.
However, transactions at the council-run car parks has dipped by 489,188 to 1,458,345.
On-street parking locations include Buttermarket/Cornhill and Angel Hill.
Mark Cordell, chief executive of the town’s Business Improvement District (BID) Our Bury St Edmunds, said: “The on-street parking data for the last two years is slightly concerning as it tends to indicate that more people are just ‘popping into town’, doing what they want and going home.
“As an organisation we encourage people to visit Bury and want them to stay as long as possible and car parking facilities, costs and options undoubtedly influence this, as do people’s lifestyles.”
He added: “My plea is for people to stay loyal and do continue to support the town centre. There’s so much to do here. It’s ‘use it or lose it’.”
The data also revealed transactions for individual car parks, showing drops when compared with 2018/19 for several including Parkway Surface (-55,074), St Andrews Long Stay (-259,171), Parkway Multi-Storey (-44,900) and School Yard East (-20,400).
However, the Ram Meadow long stay car park had transactions virtually back up to 2018/19 levels at 253,886.
The Parkway Multi-Storey car park is now fully open again following a nine-month long programme of major repairs and improvements, with up to 200 spaces out of action during the work and a series of evening closures. The completion of the work also means the Parkway Surface car park will return to short stay.
Note that council income and transactions from the Robert Boby car park is listed as zero for the last two financial years as the owners took back control of it.
Mr Cordell suggested work from home was likely to be impacting on a drop in some long-stay figures, and added: “Price is likely to be another factor. Car Parking charges discriminate against low income/low earners; any costs are a higher percentage of their income.
“My personal view is the cost-of-living crisis is having more of a detrimental impact upon the turnover of our members than the post-lockdown years. The warnings about increased mortgage costs forecast for later this year is also most concerning.”
He said total town centre footfall for 2022 was 0.6 per cent up on 2019, and early indications for 2023 is that levels are good, but added that footfall doesn’t really tell the important narrative about spend levels.
‘Good signs’ of recovery but car parking ‘not back to pre-Covid levels’
The FOI data also revealed a shortfall of £847,439 in the Bury car parks income budget for 2022/23, based on the draft income figure.
The 2022/23 income budgets, including car parking, were all based on pre-Covid levels of income, however West Suffolk Council said it had set up a fund to offset any slower recovery than predicted.
A council spokesperson explained that this central fund was to offset some or all of the shortfall in income from various council activities.
The FOI response from the council said: "Income generation for public services across the UK have been severely impacted by COVID and more recently the cost-of-living crisis, as well as national public behavioural changes in travel, shopping and working created by these issues - which have had an adverse impact on businesses, retail and public services nationally.
"West Suffolk Council is not alone in continuing to face these issues, although there are good signs of recovery by services and areas – some stronger than others.
"Car parking is one of the few areas, mainly in the Bury St Edmunds locality, where we are not back to pre-COVID levels (as the budgets assumed). This data has been used to establish the 2023 to 2024 budget."
Mr Cordell said he hoped the new West Suffolk Council administration will look to be creative and innovative and ‘not just raise costs’ as that would be likely to ‘negatively affect our members and our visitors’.
He added: “As the organisation representing town centre businesses, I would hope that we can play a constructive and important role in identifying options that will benefit businesses, visitors and the council alike.”
Cllr David Taylor, cabinet member for operations at West Suffolk Council, said they recognised and have been working across West Suffolk to help tackle challenges like the cost-of-living crisis and sustainability and the environment.
He added they had begun encouraging people where they can walk or cycle on smaller journeys to cut pollution and help their health.
He said: “The BID has been carrying out great work to bring people into the town centre including the successful spring fayre. This sits alongside our own work to help showcase the town through market events, our cultural and leisure attractions including Mutiny in Colour at Moyse’s Hall, performances at the Apex and the Abbey Gardens, once again voted as one of the top free visitor attractions in the UK.
“Alongside all of this there remains strong interest in the town not least with Primark opening soon and the council’s redevelopment of the empty former Post Office site. We have seen our car parking income return to where it was before the pandemic, and we have been reinvesting in our car parks including the major works at Parkway Multi-Storey.”
An increase to car parking charges in the town took effect in July 2021, while on-street tariffs rose in Bury in the November of that year.
*The figures on income and transactions for Bury car parks do not include leisure car parks, such as Hardwick Heath and Nowton Park.
