CORNWALL Council has spent almost £1-million installing barriers at six car parks across the Duchy which are now being removed to make way for pay and display machines. The installation of those machines is costing an additional £42,500.
The local authority says that barrier-controlled car parks incur extra additional maintenance and repair costs, and the changeover will result in “significant savings” each year. It also said there were safety reasons for making the costly changes.
It comes as it was confirmed that a number of car parks across Cornwall would be handed over to a private operator as Cornwall Council seeks to ‘save’ cash amid financial concerns, drawing the ire of campaigners.
The unitary authority has approved plans to lease 19 car parks to Corserv, an arm’s length company, for a period of up to five years subject to call-in to enable an ANPR parking system to be introduced in a bid to save money.
Other changes to be implemented as a result of the latest approved budget include the removal of the two to three hour parking tariff at car parks, which the council hopes will bring in an extra £639,000 of car park revenue.
Meanwhile, the introduction of charging at car parks owned by the local authority which have previously been free to park in - with those car park among those being considered for the transfer to Cormac, which the council hopes will bring in a further £300,000.
The confirmation of the near £1-million spent on the pay-on-exit barriers comes a few weeks after it was revealed that Cornwall Council spent £18,000 replacing payment machines in three of its car parks – Garras Wharf, Moorfield and Old Bridge Street in Truro – after just five years of use, the local authority has revealed it is going to be spending thousands more making the same changes at six more car parks.
Our Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request has revealed that the cost of installing the barriers at the six car parks was £954,108, while changing them to pay and display is £42,487.
At Millpool car park in Looe, it cost taxpayers £375,725.47 for the conversion of the car park to pay on exit, with a further £11,937.36 to be spent changing it back to pay and display.
A combined £339,695.84 was spent on the installation of barriers at two car parks in Newquay, with the costs for St George’s car park costing £161,800.11, with a change over to pay and display to cost another £4.061.78 while at The Manor, installation of pay on exit cost £177,895.73 with a change over to pay and display to cost a further £6,014.56.
At Harbour car park in Penzance, Cornwall Council spent £77,985.07 for the installation of the barriers, with a return to pay and display to cost another £10,794.98.
In St Ives, two car parks are to see the return of pay and display after a not-insignificant amount was spent on pay on exit infrastructure. At Trenwith car park, it cost £149,196.47 to put in the pay on exit barriers, with a further £6,964.03 to be spent changing it back to pay and display while over at Island car park, barrier installation cost £11,505.67 with £2,714.30 costs to be incurred with its removal.
A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said: “With the current pay on exit infrastructure reaching the end of its life, the estimated cost of a full like for like replacement in the six car parks would be more than £2 million. Barrier controlled car parks incur additional maintenance and repair costs and converting these car parks to pay and display will result in significant savings each year.
The council says it is also removing the the barriers due to: feedback from drivers who stated “barrier-controlled car parks are not accessible for everyone”.
Other concerns raised were on the grounds of safety where drivers said that there “there have been many instances of tailgating, where drivers seeking to avoid paying for their parking drove close to other vehicles as they exited the car park, often resulting in collisions in addition to reliability where it was often complained that “the barriers are frequently susceptible to technical and hardware failure, as well as vandalism”
The spokesperson added: “Technology has developed since the pay on exit system was first introduced, with JustPark allowing drivers to extend their parking sessions remotely. Regular car park users are also able to benefit from discounts through JustPark multi-use sessions and resident season tickets.” Parking tariffs and all associated parking products will remain unchanged.
Residents were quick to criticise the changes at the six car parks when the council initially announced the news in January. Karen Pearn said: “What a waste of money on The Millpool car park in Looe. Took forever to install and then implement the machines, gates, etc, and now reversing – how stupid!”
Craig Carkeek added: “Why? Seems like a load of money spent to install it and now spending a load more to put it back the way it was.”
“More of our money wasted, removing the barriers, which were only installed recently,” wrote Julie Wheeler.
“Such a waste of money. It took months for them to install the barriers in St Ives,” added Ailsa Dudley, while Rachel Balls commented: “How much more of our money is this council going to waste? I’m not expressing an opinion either way as to which system is best, but am exasperated at another U-turn by the council that will cost us precious money that isn’t available to be ‘wasted’.”