Slight drop in footfall after free parking ends

The council stopped the scheme earlier this year

Fewer people appear to have been visiting town centres in the afternoon after a local authority stopped providing free parking.

Durham County Council reintroduced charges after 14:00 in its off-street car parks on 1 January.

The free parking allowance had been introduced in 2021 to aid the county's recovery from the pandemic.

Council official Graham Wood said footfall was "influenced by all sorts of factors" such as the cost of living and changes to retail provision and road layout.

The council report said there had been "no discernible change" in the number of people visiting the county's town centres that could be linked to parking fees.

But it included morning footfall - when parking charges had not changed - in its calculations, reducing the overall figure.

The council report also suggested the local authority would make about £2.3m in parking fees for the 2024-25 financial year.

The report looked at various parts of County Durham, including Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland, Chester-le-Street and Consett.

All of these experienced lower afternoon footfall in July, compared with the same month the previous year.

The report said it did not provide data on Durham city centre as the majority of car parks there were privately managed and unaffected by the council's free parking rules.

Barnard Castle saw the biggest afternoon drop in footfall in July, compared with the previous year, at 7.2%.

When mornings, evenings and nights were taken into consideration, overall footfall levels rose by 0.2% in July, compared with July 2023.

Chester-le-Street also saw an all-day 2.6% footfall increase.