Westmorland and Furness Council have advised drivers that with the completion of the major gas works in Penrith town centre, that the ‘special car parking arrangements’ introduced during the town centre road closures will come to an end on Friday, 19 April.
Penrith Business Improvement District (BID) agreed to cover the cost of making parking on all council-operated pay and display car parks in Penrith free of charge after 3pm while the works, which started in January, were being carried out by Northern Gas Networks to replace the main gas along Middlegate through to King Street.
Now the works have been completed the car parks will return to normal tariffs and charging periods from 19 April. Signage will be installed in the car parks to remind drivers that free parking is no longer available and the charges that increased in council owned carparks at the start of April must be paid.
A spokesperson for Westmorland and Furness Council said: “The BID’s funding has provided free parking after 3pm in town centre car parks since 12 January.
“The gas works were not being undertaken by the council, however we were happy to work with the BID to explore ways to mitigate the impact of the works on local businesses and the community.’’
Penrith BiD agreed a maximum payment capped at £2,000 to cover the potential losses of Westmorland and Furness Council as a result of providing the car parking free after 3pm initiative during the gas works.
A report will be submitted from Westmorland and Furness Council to the board of Penrith BiD showing the income lost by the council against the same time last year using data from the parking machines with the exact loss at the end of the period upto the £2000.00 covered from the BiD’s budget from levy paying businesses in the town.
The Penrith BiD directors felt the initiative had been received positively by the people of Penrith and that it has raised a wider issue of the parking charges in Penrith compared to the rest of the council area.
At a recent of Penrith BiD at a board meeting the Chairman of the Bid “apologised if the Board felt that they shouldn’t have gone ahead without bringing it back to the Board for a vote, but had felt that it had been agreed principally in the previous meeting and this was a small part of the budget with positive result.”
The free after 3pm initiative will come to an end on Friday, 19 April in all Westmorland and Furness Council operated pay and display carparks in Penrith.
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