FREE one hour car parking is set to be retained at Lymm with charges set to increase to help plug a budget gap of £30m at Warrington Borough Council.
Following public consultation and feedback from local Cllrs together with a petition signed by more than 4,000 people, the council has agreed to retain elements of free parking on village car parks at Lymm and Stockton Heath, although charges are set to increase.
With a budget gap of around £30m, the council says it needs to make difficult choices, to balance the budget and ensure vital, frontline services are protected.
The council’s Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) – part of the 2025/26 budget setting process – will propose a number of savings to help address the council’s difficult financial position, including increases to parking charges.
These parking charge proposals include the Forge car park in Stockton Heath and Pepper Street, Davies Way and Henry Street car parks in Lymm.
Car parks in Lymm and Forge car park in Stockton Heath have benefited from extended periods of free parking since parking charges were introduced. In the case of Lymm the first hour being free and on The Forge car park in Stockton Heath, free parking after 3pm.
As there is a significant budget gap of around £30m, the council have had to make difficult decisions to reduce this budget gap. After receiving significant feedback from the recent statutory consultation proposing the removal of free parking after 3pm in Stockton Heath and the removal of the first hour free parking in Lymm, a revised proposal was presented to Full Council on 24th February in order to address these concerns.
A council spokesperson said: “We are aware of the significance of the potential impact of increasing times when parking charges apply, therefore we have tried to reduce the impact by retaining some of the free parking periods.
“Lymm car parks will retain free parking for the first hour between Monday to Saturday at all times. Sundays and bank holidays will continue to be free all day. In order for the first hour free parking to remain on all 3 Lymm car parks, a modest uplift to the charges on the original proposal has been introduced.
“The Forge car park in Stockton Heath will retain the 15 minutes free parking between 9 am and 3 pm and 30 minutes free parking will be provided between 3 pm and 10 pm along with the introduction of an evening tariff structure. Sundays and bank holidays will continue to be free.
“Therefore, it is proposed that the charges specified are implemented to assist in reducing the £30m budget gap whilst keeping potential impact to local businesses and car park users to a minimum.”
In response Cllr Graham Gowland (Lymm South) who carried out a lot of local consultations with local businesses in 2016 when charging was introduced, and who fought to retain the free hour with the latest changes commented: “It’s great the council has understood the vital retention of the free hour in Lymm – this seems like a small issue, but their own figures showed a multi-million pound impact on the local economy if the charge was introduced. What’s inequitable though is the council’s own parking policy is to charge in all the council carparks, and I’ve been advised the Labour leadership prohibited charging in Labour-controlled wards with district carparks. These areas have very similar levels of income to Lymm and Stockton Heath, yet for what seems like purely political reasons they have no charges. Seeing the South, non Labour voting part of the borough treated like a cash cow is not acceptable.”
Warrington Borough Council Leader and Cabinet Member for transport, Cllr Hans Mundry, said: “These revised plans aim to respond to concerns raised by local people over our initial proposals, by retaining free parking periods in Lymm and Stockton Heath car parks.
“While we do need to make difficult decisions to balance our budget and protect frontline services, we recognise how important it is to residents, visitors and shoppers that parking charges remain affordable – and we’ve listened to public feedback to our original plans.
“I’m grateful to the local ward councillors, as well as the Liberal Democrats group for working with us on this difficult issue to try to find the best way forward.
“We believe these revised plans achieve a balance between supporting the important work we are doing to reducing our £30m budget gap, while keeping the potential impact to local businesses and car park users as low as we possibly can.”
A statutory consultation period on these revised proposals has now commenced, running until Thursday 17 April 2025. Residents and businesses are invited to provide their feedback.
Warrington Borough Council has given notice it proposes to make an Order under Sections 1, 2, 4, 32, 35 and Part IV of Schedule 9 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and of all other enabling powers. The effect of the Order will be The Borough of Warrington (Off-Street Parking Places) (Civil Enforcement) Consolidation Order 2024, is hereby further varied or amended as detailed in Schedules 1 and 2 to this notice.
Deposited documents may be viewed on-line at https://www.warrington.gov.uk/permanent-traffic-regulation-orders or Contact Warrington, 1 Time Square, Warrington, WA1 2NT between 9am & 5pm, Monday to Friday.
All representations both in support or objecting to the proposals must be in writing either by post or delivered by hand to Legal Services, East Annexe, Town Hall, Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1UH or emailed with full contact details to [email protected] by 17th April 2025 and all objections must specify the grounds on which they are made. Please note that all representations received may be considered in public by the Council and that the substance of any representation together with the name and address of the person making it could become available for public inspection.
