Feedback from businesses and visitors lead to parking proposals

30 Jan 2024

Changes to car park arrangements in Bury St Edmunds could be introduced this spring in response to requests from businesses and visitors.

Next week will see West Suffolk Council’s Cabinet discuss its budget for 2024/25 including two changes to parking in Bury St Edmunds.

The first change would see a new four-hour stay tariff for the arc short stay car park in Bury St Edmunds. It follows calls from Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District and others for a tariff to allow people to stay longer in the car park. The current tariffs of £3 for two hours and £4 for three hours would remain as they are currently but a new tariff of £6 for four hours would be introduced.

Alongside this, councillors are also considering simplifying nighttime charges. Currently certain car parks in Bury St Edmunds – most of them classed as short stay - include an evening charge of £1 from 6pm. That means if someone parks earlier on and plans to stay beyond 6pm, they have to add a £1 onto the charge when they buy their parking ticket. But the feedback from visitors using the car parks suggests this could be made easier for people.

Under the new proposals, the nighttime charge would be scrapped, and existing daytime tariffs will be extended until 8pm after which there will be no charge.  

The council’s budget for 2024/25 is due to be discussed by West Suffolk Council’s Cabinet next Tuesday (6 February) after which it will be debated by Council on 20 February. If the car parking changes are approved, a statutory consultation on changes to the Traffic Regulation Order will be held. Subject to that, the two new changes would likely then come into effect at some point in April this year.

Cllr David Taylor, Cabinet Member for Operations at West Suffolk Council said: “These proposals represent positive changes in direct response to the feedback from businesses and visitors. It is important that we manage our car parks to maintain the balance of short stay turnover and long stay provision, which is vital to supporting the town centre, including the evening economy. I believe these proposals will allow us to continue to do this while also making improvements, and I look forward to discussing this and our wider budget in further detail with my colleagues at Cabinet and Council next month.”

Mark Cordell, Chief Executive of Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District which represents more than 400 town centre businesses, said: “I am delighted with both of these proposals from the new administration at West Suffolk Council. Our Bury St Edmunds has been pushing for the duration at the arc car park to be increased, supporting shoppers who park there in their choice to stay longer and hopefully spend more supporting our town centre businesses. And the changes to the evening charge make things easier for people wanting to come into town, shop and then go for a meal, which is great news.”

The income from parking funds West Suffolk’s programme of maintenance and improvements to its car parks. In Bury St Edmunds, in the past two years, this has included £1.4m of major works to the concrete structure of Parkway Multi-Storey, resurfacing and relining of Parkway surface, St Andrews and Ram Meadow car parks as well as the reconfiguration and resurfacing work of Lawsons Place car park on Moreton Hall to create extra parking spaces. In addition, the income pays associated costs including over £1m in business rates while it also helps pay for other work that supports the town centre including street cleaning and CCTV.

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