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Cabinet to consider potential changes to council’s parking policy

Released on July 29, 2020

At its meeting on Thursday 6 August South Oxfordshire District Council’s Cabinet will consider a number of options for potential changes to the district’s parking policy.

Options that cabinet will look at include:

  • Standardising the charging hours and Sunday parking fees across the district so that all areas are treated equally;
  • Changes to tariffs to address parking issues in the Chinnor, Didcot and Goring areas;
  • Ensuring there are enough spaces availability at the right times with a full review of how permits work;
  • Offering discounted permits for users of electric vehicles, and for the council to actively support the provision of charging points in its car parks.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a significant loss of income and town centre footfall is only now returning to normal levels, and so the council’s parking service is forecasted to experience a shortfall for 2020/21. 

Cabinet will therefore also look at options to restore this important revenue stream back to pre-covid levels.  This could include potentially introducing a small rise in charges – if approved, it would be the first time in 13 years that parking fees in South Oxfordshire have increased.

Cllr David Rouane, Cabinet Member for Housing and Environment at South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “We are looking at making changes to our parking policy in order to solve some issues in various parts of the district, and to restore this important revenue stream.  We know that some areas experience issues with lack of spaces during the day, so we will consider how we can address this.  

“On top of those improvements, this will also help us in meeting our future aspirations for the district.   At the moment we are developing a corporate plan setting out what we want to achieve for South Oxfordshire.  While that’s in development, we’re taking every opportunity to include measures where we can that will contribute to these aspirations – for example, the review of our parking policies was an opportunity for us to include electric vehicle incentives and provide us with the flexibility to actively support zero-emission vehicles.  That feeds into our priorities to address the climate emergency and improve air quality.”

For more information about the parking options being considered by Cabinet please see the 6 August Cabinet meeting page.