Parking charge review welcomed by business chief
GoogleA business leader has welcomed a review of town centre parking charges.
An hour's free parking in Yarm and Stockton was removed by the local council earlier this year and replaced with a £1.50 charge.
It has been branded "the wrong decision" by Paddy Morton, manager of a family business on Yarm High Street and chairman of the Yarm Business Forum.
Stockton Borough Council said it was now looking to analyse the measure to get an understanding of what it had done to people's shopping habits.
When the charge was introduced in February, the local authority said it was needed to cover the costs of maintaining parking.
However, local businesses said it has driven away customers and they have called for it to be scrapped.
'Full picture' needed
Mr Morton described its implementation as a "knee-jerk decision", adding: "There was no consultation and no advice was taken.
"I think the first reaction [to the review] is to welcome the fact that they want to engage with town centre businesses and collect proper data, which should have been what happened in the first place."
The council said it had monitored the impact and "provisional data" showed footfall in Yarm and Stockton "was higher every month than it was in 2024 and 2023".
Cabinet members will meet on Thursday to decide the scope of the review and consider the type of data to be collected, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Councillor Paul Rowling, cabinet member for resources and transport, said: "While initial data collected in the first four months is showing that footfall is up in our town centres, we want to delve deeper and analyse the information and trends.
"This will allow us to get the full picture of what removing the first hour of free parking has done to change residents and visitors' habits and how this may be affecting our town centre businesses.
"We also want to engage with those affected and listen to what they have to say."