A Scarborough Councillor has declared a ‘win’ for coastal businesses after a council U-turn on the introduction of parking charges after 6pm.
As part of a proposal for charges to rise by 10 per cent at car parks run by North Yorkshire Council, the authority had also proposed introducing charges where parking is currently free during evenings and on Sundays
After pressure from coastal politicians, a council director has said that the changes will now “not include evening or weekend charges, which will be matters that will be considered in future as part of the local area reviews”.
Cllr Janet Jefferson, who represents Scarborough’s Castle division on NYC, had urged council bosses to reconsider the evening charges over concerns that it would “kill our post-6pm trading and economy”.
She suggested that the town, which advertises itself as being ‘open for business’ should be rebranded as ‘we will be closing businesses’ if the evening charges were introduced.
In an email to the authority’s corporate director of environment, she said:
“You will be more than aware of the pressure such [evening] charges will incur, especially to residents and also to our Scarborough economy, and with Park and Ride closing so early, visitors will leave earlier, damaging our hospitality economy”.
She added:
“Overnight stay visitors use our car parks, which in turn relieves our resident zones. All the streets in Castle division are resident parking and at night, they need to be able to park. It is difficult now, so goodness knows what charging at NYC car parks will do.”
A council briefing note had identified an estimated £198,000 income “specifically attributed to the introduction or harmonisation of evening charging across the county”.
Cllr Jefferson said: “I estimate that as a town we would lose this in a week in our economy. Tourism is hard enough, and this will kill our post-6pm trading and economy.”
The new charges would have been introduced where parking is currently free during evenings and on Sundays.
However, on Tuesday, North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director of environment, Karl Battersby, confirmed in an email that the council’s report “is being revised to take account of a number of issues raised”.
He noted:
“The revised report will be available either later today or tomorrow and will not include evening or weekend charges, which will be matters that will be considered in future as part of the local area reviews.”
Cllr Jefferson, an Independent, described the decision as “great news”.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS):
“It’s not just Scarborough, but it was particularly pertinent to us because it will help our nighttime economy.”
Council bosses have estimated that the 10 per cent increase in parking charges will give the authority a £3.563 million boost in 2026/27.
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