Setting tariffs for Cornwall Council car parks has always been a contentious subject. Car park fees form a significant income stream for the council which it cannot afford to do without. Also, car park tariffs are a way to manage demand within the car park itself and traffic flows in towns. Every year, the Council publishes its proposed tariff structure that goes through a public consultation process and a democratic process involving a review by the scrutiny committee and then a decision by Cabinet.
The tariff structure in 2023-24 placed car parks in 3 price zones, A, B and C with all-day charges (anything over 4 hours) of £10.00, £6.00 or £5.50. Regular users of a particular car park can purchase a season ticket for one, three or six months, or a year. This can mean that a commuter using the car park 5 days a week most weeks would pay a bit less than half the full daily price. There has also been the option of purchasing a “multi-session ticket” through the Just Park app. By loading up credit on the app and then using this each time that they park, the daily rate charged would be £5.00 in zone A, £3.00 in B and £2.75 in C, i.e. half price.
However, at some point in late 2023, a decision was made to slash the prices payable through the JustPark app pre-payment scheme. In the case of zone A car parks, the price is now only £2.50 for all day (actually for 24 hours). In zone B, it is £2.00 and in zone C, £1.75. What is there not to like about that? Actually, quite a lot!
The scheme
To use the JustPark “wallet” facility, the motorist must first download the JustPark app on to their smartphone and set up an account with a few details such as car registration, mobile phone number, payment card details. Then the motorist can purchase a parking credit with a minimum spend of £25. Whenever, they park in one of the Cornwall Council long stay car parks, they will find that they have the option to pay for their parking from the wallet rather than from their normal payment card. If, for example, they had selected to park for more than 4 hours in a zone A car park, and they selected to pay from the wallet, they would be debited from their wallet just £2.50 instead of the normal £10 (actually £10.10 including the JustPark usual fee of 10 pence which does not apply to the wallet purchases).
The Cornwall Council website page explaining the JustPark wallet, says, "These tickets could be excellent value for money if you regularly commute or you regularly use a specific car park but don't park every day of the week.” However, the benefit is not just for regular commuters nor is it restricted to using a specific car park. The motorist could use the wallet in Garras Wharf, Truro, one day; in Edward Street, Truro, the following day; in Falmouth on another day; in St Ives next week - in fact, in any town with a Cornwall Council long stay car park. And you don’t have to use it very often to see the benefit. Even if you only park in a council car park for a couple of hours or more, once every couple of months, you will save money by loading up the wallet with the credit. The initial outlay of £25 is less than half a tank of petrol.
Furthermore, the benefit of using this wallet is not confined to residents of Cornwall. Anyone with a JustPark app, whether they live at Lands End or John O'Groats can use the facility. Someone coming to Cornwall for a week’s holiday could use this scheme to save up to 75% of the normal parking charges. The parking credit has an expiry date of two years, so even if they don’t use it all one year, they can use the balance the following year.
The downsides of the scheme
The advantages of the scheme for the individual motorist are obvious - significant savings on parking costs. However, for Cornwall Council, the most obvious and immediate problem is that there will be a significant loss of income. Data from a CC scrutiny committee report (paragraph 2.25) suggests that about 30% of car park charges are paid by the JustPark app, the rest by coin or by card at the machines (pay and display and pay on foot). Until recently most motorists would have not seen a financial advantage in paying by the app as the displayed prices are the same. However, with the potential to save up to 75% by paying through the app using the wallet, motorists are soon going to twig on to this disparity and will start using this method more and more. The council could soon find itself with a reduction in car park income of millions of pounds per annum.
Another adverse effect will be from people switching from public transport to motor cars as they realise that the cost of driving into towns to park has become cheaper than catching a bus. This runs completely counter to the professed Council aim to persuade people to leave their cars at home and is embedded into their so-called “Positive Parking” philosophy. In the January 2023 scrutiny committee papers (paragraph 2.17) when the 2023-24 charges were being considered, it was said, "The structure is aligned with the current bus fares schemes - any parking zones with good public transport links are in the higher range. Multi-use sessions in these towns will not undercut the daily bus fares. This will support our aims to encourage people to use cars less when more sustainable transport options are available.” But this latest slashing of multi-session tickets prices has completely undercut bus fares.
One place that will certainly see a switch away from buses to use of city centre car parks will be Truro with its park and ride service likely to be significantly affected. The park and ride service is predicated on its passengers starting their journey from home by car and then deliberately choosing to park outside the city centre and catch the bus from there. With a city centre car park costing £10 for a full day and the park and ride providing an all day fare of £2.20, the incentive to use the park and ride has been clear. This is confirmed by the fact that the one group who virtually never use the park and ride are council officers and councillors for the simple reason that they get free parking at County Hall. When it becomes clear to motorists that it will only cost them £2.50 to park in the centre of Truro, how many of them will continue to pull into Tregurra or Langarth and delay their journey into the city by 10-15 minutes in order to save themselves 30 pence? And, of course, if there are two in the car, it will cost more to use the park and ride than parking in the city centre. Expect, therefore, to see a dramatic reduction in park and ride passenger numbers this year at the same time that the Council will have to find more money to run it following First Bus forcing the Council to increase what it was paying them to run it.
As traffic switches from the park and ride to city centre car parks, expect also to see the car parks fill up during the day adding to congestion in the city centre and a further deterioration in air quality in the hot spots.
How was the decision made to slash the prices?
The short answer to this question is I do not know. There was no indication in the scrutiny committee papers in January 2023 or the Cabinet papers of February 2023, that there was an intention to cut the JustPark wallet prices in half later in the year. In fact, in the minutes of the Cabinet meeting, it is explicitly stated that, “Multi-use session tickets within such towns would not undermine the daily bus fares”. The paper in the November 2023 scrutiny committee meeting entitled "In Year Review of Parking Structures and Tariffs” makes no mention of the proposal to change the prices of tickets purchased through JustPark wallet.
Summary
There is one phrase to describe the latest car park pricing scheme: batshit crazy. It seems inevitable that, as 2024 progresses and more and more motorists, including those from outside Cornwall, cotton on to how they can get cut price parking across Cornwall, and the detrimental impact of this decision sinks into the consciousness of senior officers and councillors within the Council, then an embarrassing U-turn will have to happen.
Update
8 February 2024
After publishing the above article on this website, I emailed Cornwall Council Transport department to advise them of what I had written and to invite their comments. I received a reply that addressed some of the points that I had raised, but not all of them. This is the reply.
In my opinion, I still feel that the car park charging scheme is bizarre with large discounts for multi-session purchases and that it will inevitably result in significant loss of income to Cornwall Council and an increasing switch away from buses, including the Truro park and ride, to car travel with all the consequent negative consequences. I will post further articles in due course with more analysis of the charging regime.