Free hour parking scheme expanded after success

A parking scheme which offers the first hour for free is being rolled out to another site after council bosses confirmed the regime is "working well".

Forest of Dean District Council chiefs abolished the first hour charge for their car parks last year as a way to attract new visitors to their part of Gloucestershire.

At a cabinet meeting on 15 May, councillors voted to bring Pyart Court car park in Coleford into the scheme to ensure continuity across their jurisdiction.

The authority agreed to delegate officers to consider feedback and decide whether to go ahead.

The Pyart Court site includes a off-street parking area which enforced different rates than their nearby car parks.

Currently, there is a 20p charge for an hour and 40p for two hours – which applies 24 hours and seven days a week.

Blue badge holders are also charged at the standard rate, as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Projects and property cabinet member Sid Phelps, who presented the report, told the meeting: "The proposal will abolish the current charge for blue badge holders, to bring it in line with other Forest of Dean District Council car parks.

"The parking order will unify charges across all of our car parks in the district."

Mr Phelps asked cabinet members to back the proposals and to agree a budget of around £5,850 for equipment and signs for the site.

Climate emergency cabinet member Chris McFarling approved the concept of bringing Pyart Court on board.

"We seem to be doing well with the new charging facilities which we introduced," he said.

"After much discussion and debate, they seem to be working well. We are managing to get the income we need to offset the expenditure in our car parks."

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