Greenwich Council is planning to increase car parking charges, with residents in controlled parking zones facing annual charges of up to £100 to leave their cars in the borough’s most in-demand streets.
Pay-by-phone charges are also set for an increase, with drivers who park in Greenwich town centre set for fees of £3 per hour.
Greenwich is also poised to follow neighbouring Lewisham and Bexley in introducing mobile CCTV patrols to detect drivers who break the law.
But council officers have ruled out charging extra for diesel vehicles, a measure which has been used in boroughs such as Islington to tackle pollution.
A report to be presented to senior councillors next week says there is “an absence of data” on whether or not these measures persuade drivers to choose less polluting vehicles.
The council’s cabinet will decide whether or not to implement the changes next Wednesday. The new charges would be brought in “as soon as possible” – likely to be next year – except in areas where controlled parking zones have been expanded, where the increases would kick in from April 2019.
In controlled parking zones, annual charges would rise from £57 to £70 in areas where restrictions only apply for a few hours. In zones that apply all day, charges will rise from between £77 and £92 to £100.
Electric vehicles will be charged £25.
Business permits see particularly high increases, including from £126 to £400 for first permits in areas where all-day parking restrictions apply.
Pay-by-phone and pay-and-display charges in Greenwich town centre will rise from £2.40/£2.50 to £3.00 per hour. On-street parking in Woolwich goes up from £1.50 to £2.00, while Eltham sees smaller rises to up to £1.90.
There will also be higher penalties for illegal parking in most of Greenwich borough, with the entire area being brought into the higher Band A rate, with fines of £80 or £130. At present, most of the borough outside Greenwich itself is in Band B.
Greenwich Council has long had a had a shortfall of around £2m per year in parking charges, which officers put down to the “financial climate”, “resourcing challenges”, charges having been static since 2011 and Woolwich Tesco offering free parking. It also says the shortfall is down to controlled parking zones not being expanded, although all the borough’s zones are currently being reviewed. Income from parking charges funds Greenwich’s contribution to the Freedom Pass scheme.
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