Parking charges in a popular tourist region are set to increase by a staggering 40 per cent as a local authority is forced to make “difficult decisions” affecting roughly 117,400 people.
Gwynedd Council in North Wales has warned that it has been forced to raise the price of its parking charges within the area from April 1, 2025.
The stark increase in prices comes as the Council continues to face a “severe financial deficit” with hopes that the move will “realise significant savings” for the local authority which has dealt with financial troubles.
The cost hikes coming in next year are estimated to bring in an additional income of £800,000 and will affect all council-owned car parks.
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The new parking charges are expected to bring in £800,000
GWYNEDD COUNCIL
The approved scheme will see increases in Pen y Gwryd parking fees from £2 for half a day and £4 for a full day to £4 for six hours and £8 for 12 hours.
Other increases include the price of an Annual Parking Ticket from £140 to £145 per year and the price of a Local Parking Ticket from £70 to £75 per year. The Council will also extend the enforcement hours of short-stay car parks from 10am to 4:30pm to 9am until 5pm.
The Council explained: “To update the parking strategy and offer appropriate solutions in order to meet the sufficient level of income that is expected from the Department. It must be recognized that parking can be a contentious issue and that proposals for parking management can provoke strong feelings from a personal and local perspective.
“However, all options must be looked at and a review of the arrangements is inevitable in terms of financial sustainability in this challenging period in terms of the authority's budgets.”
The Council warned that the parking charges would be “inevitable” to help create financial sustainability in this “challenging” period.
It noted that inflation contributed to the parking income targets and that 40 per cent would be sufficient to address the expected inflation increase until the 2028-2029 financial year.
Despite receiving approval for the new scheme, several complaints were received regarding the new fees with many drivers left furious.
Most of the complaints referred to the cost of parking in long-stay car parks within Band 2 where a decision was made to reduce the number of options to just two fees, £5 for 12 hours and £10 for 24 hours.
Concerns were raised that the new fees would not be affordable for local people and would not meet the needs of people who use the car parks for a period of less than 12 hours.
Drivers also took their frustration to social media over the new parking hikes with someone warning the move would “kill the high street shopping”. “May as well knock downtown centres and create social housing, as the majority of us shop online and visit retail parks,” they said.
Another resident said that instead of raising parking fees the Council should employ more traffic wardens on streets as “they would make more money in fines of people parking on zig-zags, double yellow lines, curb corners and make the towns safer”.
The council detailed how the total income generated by parking fees in the 2023-24 financial year was around £2.1million, which is approximately £590,000 short of the target.
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Parking charges will impact the Pen y Gwryd area
GETTY
“Should the parking fee structure and the number of people using the car parks remain the same this year, it is predicted that the service would underperform by over £870,000” the local authority added.
