Councillors agree cheap Inverness city centre weekend parking

Proposals for subsidised weekend parking at the Rose Street car park in Inverness in the run-up to the festive season have been approved by councillors.

The Inverness Area Committee agreed to take £8,119 out of the Inverness Common Good fund in order to massively reduce charges to 20p for the first two hours every Saturday between now and Christmas.

The final three Sundays before Christmas will also be subsidised. Normal charges will apply during the week.

The committee was divided, however, about the amount of money that should come out of Common Good to subsidise the council for the initiative.

Inverness Central councillor Donnie Kerr argued that £1500 should come from the council’s community services budget or the Inverness BID group.

He said: "The great weakness is we are looking for 100 per cent of this funding to come out of the common good fund and I do not see why the common good fund should fund it if no money is coming forward from BID or Highland Council."

Fellow ward councillor Richard Laird agreed with Councillor Kerr’s proposal that £1,500 be committed by BID or the council to pay for the cost of calibrating the ticket machines.

Inverness South Liberal Democrat councillor Carolyn Caddick said the common good fund should be left untouched because "it feels wrong that the fund is paying for this".

She said: "I understand that we have to help our city centre traders but why does the common good fund have to subsidise Highland Council? It’s Highland Council’s car park."

However. the council leader Margaret Davidson urged members to support the gesture as a "one-off" to support traders.

She said: "This is a one-off. They have had a truly difficult year. This is Inverness city, the capital of the Highlands saying to its traders we will give you a hand this Christmas and try and pull some traders in".

She said the council’s decision in December to increase the costs of car parking at Rose Street was "crazy".

From last April, anybody parking for a full week had a 724 per cent increase compared to the previous charges. The new costs were designed to net savings of more than £300,000 for Highland Council.

Councillor Davidson questioned whether reducing the fees back down would actually net more car parking income.

She said: "We lowered prices in our High Life Highland leisure card and we got more families in and it has hugely increased the use of our leisure facilities - so maybe we should look at the same thing for parking."

Councillor Kerr lodged a motion that called for £1,500 of the full amount to be met by the council or Bid. But members voted 13-12 in favour of the full amount coming out of the common good fund."

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