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Editorial for Citizen W/E 28th February CAR PARKING - HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH? A report by John A. Gearing FRICS With congestion charging having been introduced in London and the fall out being closely watched by other cities throughout the Country the time has come for everybody who needs to travel to evaluate the price of parking. Parking restrictions have been with us for a long time now. Yellow lines and traffic wardens are as much a part of the street scene as cat's eyes and manhole covers particularly in town centres. But how much longer will we have a right to park on any road surface be it outside a home or a shop or an office. Some cities have introduced daytime parking restrictions in residential areas so that the road outside a house is made available for business and visitor parking. This is effectively a means of local authorities collecting more revenue, which should morally be ploughed back, into providing more parking facilities. The difficulty with this scenario is that there is an implied obligation on local authorities to provide such parking facilities. This doesn't however seem to be the case. In so far as new building is concerned it is has in the past been a planning requirement of the developer to provide within his development a reasonable amount of parking for both staff, visitors and customers. The latest government guidelines have now reduced the parking requirement of developers and therefore there is no commitment from either local Councils or developers to provide much needed parking facilities. Park and ride is an obvious solution provided that land on the periphery
of towns is available for such facilities. The economics of parking and
what is an appropriate charge will soon have to be faced by all. Currently
the facility of being able to park at a place of work is not normally
taken into consideration when assessing the rent, however the time will
inevitably come when each parking space is valued separately. What will
you be expected to pay for a parking space? One persons value of a parking
space may not be the same as another's - however you can be sure that
whoever is prepared to pay the most for a parking space will surely be
setting the limit as to what parking spaces will be assessed at for private
letting purposes and this figure will be added to the annual rent. The
motorist is about to be priced out of Town - what long-term effect will
this have on business. ? |
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