Free Car Parking

It has been acknowledged by Worcestershire County Council that Worcester is one of only a few large urban areas in the country where on street parking is allowed with no charge. Car park charges are also some of the cheapest in the country.

All of this can be seen to be incentivising car use for short urban journeys, when in fact central government policy is the opposite; the Decarbonising Transport strategy has the target of 50% of urban journeys to be by walking or cycling by 2030.

Bike Worcester are calling on both City Council and County Council to do much more to enable and encourage more active travel, while at the same time use the tools they have to discourage car use.

Implementing charges for on street city centre parking, and increasing car park charges progressively towards the national average is a valid mechanism for the council to raise funds for other uses.