Newcastle City Council reaches free evening parking compromise

Eldon Square is one of the car parks where charges will now extend until 19:00

Proposals to axe free evening parking in a city centre have been scaled back.

Newcastle City Council planned to cut its Alive After Five scheme, which has made parking in city centre multi-storeys free after 17:00 since 2010.

It received 650 objections with fears raised about a potential drop in trade for culture and hospitality venues.

Cabinet member for transport Jane Byrne said the council had rethought how it could manage parking "and still create a greener and more sustainable city".

She said: "This means balancing the needs of lots of competing demands, including changes to how people shop and businesses operate since the pandemic."

The council had proposed extending parking fees until 22:00 at the Eldon Square, Eldon Garden, Dean Street, Oxford Street and Grainger Town multi-storey car parks, as well as for on-street spaces in the city centre.

But it has scaled that back by three hours, with free parking starting at 19:00, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Manors and Quayside multi-storeys will have parking charges extended by an hour to 18:00.

Parking on Sundays will be by hourly rate, rather than the current £3 all day fixed charge.

Drivers will pay hourly rates for parking in the city on Sundays, rather than a fixed fee

The changes will be imposed once statutory processes have been gone through and signage has been updated, which is likely to be by August, the authority said.

Only 25 letters of support were submitted regarding the proposal to charge until 22:00.

The Newcastle Arts Centre on Westgate Road said the scheme would be "absurdly destructive" to venues that relied on evening trade.

Public transport users had called for free bus or Metro travel to be introduced as a replacement.

Concerns were also raised about the financial impact on low-paid city centre workers and the potential for parking to be pushed into residential neighbourhoods surrounding the city centre.