STREET parking in Basingstoke and Deane has increased and become "more of a problem", a borough councillor has said.

The problem of parking and transport in Basingstoke and Deane was discussed during a cabinet meeting held by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC) on October 11.

Cllr Jay Ganesh presented the draft parking strategy to the cabinet, which is expected to be taken to public consultation in the coming months. The plan outlines how the council will manage parking in the future.

BDBC is one of the key providers of off-street parking in the town, with direct control of over 2,000 spaces, comprising a mixture of pay and display and permit parking. 

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Introducing the draft plan Cllr Jay Ganesh said: “The emerging Town Centre Masterplan visualises a future town with development and exciting potential changes to ensure that it is an attractive place for people to live, work and visit, recognising its importance in the borough and in the wider context. Accessibility is key for the town centre and, it is recognised there is a need for a renewed parking strategy.

“This needs to provide a robust framework to ensure that the objectives of the masterplan can be achieved, that visitors have convenient locations to park, and that the viability of the town centre is preserved and enhanced for investment. In this respect, it is important that the right number of spaces are provided in the right location to meet the differing needs of those visiting Basingstoke and that accessibility to the central area matches the ambitions of the masterplan.”

The draft plan seeks to consolidate or re-locate parking facilities as well as reduce the current quantum of parking provision to respond to lower levels of public car parking demand.

Cllr Alex Lee said: “Vehicle movement has shifted since the pandemic and we can only look around some of the estates that we represent to see that parking has increased and become more of a problem within the estates. Carparks are becoming emptier throughout the town centre.

“We have a drop in funding for public transport, we are thinking about the Top of Town and how we can bring footfall back to the Top of Town and I worry what if we make some drastic changes to car parking within the town centre that could affect those wider issues.

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“We have also got an ageing population as the census has recently highlighted without a doubt they will rely heavily on the transport of the car and it is investable with a poor public service provision.”

Cllr Andrew McCormick, who leads the Labour group said the town needs more electric charging points.

He added: “We are way behind where we should be in installing electric car points.

“Most of our car parks don’t have any and nothing in the paper gives me confidence that we will tackle this issue with a substantial number of extra charges being installed either in our car parks or on the road in time for the projected 50 per cent of cars being electric in the next years.”

He went on to say that the borough’s parking charging at night does not currently help the bid to improve the economy in the town centre.

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Leader of BDBC, Cllr Simon Bound told the cabinet that the plan is just at the draft stage, and will later go to public consultation.

He added: “We often talk about parking and the future of the car, well actually we should spend more time talking about the future of the internal combustion engine and what that means and also space for transport rather than space for cars.

“It does provide some difficulties which is why I think it is important we get some feedback from residents because we don’t yet know what coming out of the pandemic means for the use of our car parks.”