Enfield drivers set to be offered 30 minutes of free parking every day

The Conservative-run council argues the new policy will help local businesses as well as shoppers using local high streets, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Plans to offer 30 minutes of free parking per vehicle per day are being taken forward by Enfield Council’s Conservative administration.

At a cabinet meeting last night (Wednesday 9th), senior councillors gave resounding support to the new policy, which could be introduced before the height of the Christmas shopping period.

The council must now carry out a public consultation on the proposals before putting them into force.

Nevertheless, the feeling at Enfield Civic Centre is that the 30-minute free parking policy – applying to all council-owned car parks as well as “eligible on-street parking locations” – is likely to receive resounding support from the borough’s residents.

Maria Alexandrou, the Tory-run council’s cabinet member for environment, said the proposals were “a fantastic idea” which would “help the high streets” by boosting trade.

“If all goes to plan” and the 21-day consultation receives a positive response, the policy could “go live” at the end of November, Cllr Alexandrou confirmed.

It would see the removal of existing 15 and 30-minute tariffs at council-run pay-to-use car parks, with the first chargeable tariff starting at one hour.

Two of these – Lodge Drive and Fords Grove car parks – currently allow for 45 minutes of free parking. However, the window of free use for these facilities would be reduced to half-an-hour in a bid to standardise rates across all council-run parking areas.

Andrew Thorp, cabinet member for communications and customer services, argued that a consistent application of the policy would be needed so residents “understand a consistent strategy across the policy rather than leading to confusion here and there”.

Existing charging arrangements at Enfield Town’s car parks for Sundays only, including the current three-hour free parking provision, will remain unchanged.

The council says its parking services arm manages “an extensive network of parking facilities across the borough”. These include on-street pay-to-park bays and “eleven off-street surface car parks that support local town centres, businesses, residents and visitors”.

Motorists can pay for these facilities either through cashless services or pre-purchased parking vouchers. The proposed new measures would keep this system while introducing a daily allowance of one free 30-minute parking session per vehicle.

Once a vehicle has used its free 30-minute parking session, any subsequent parking session on the same day at another participating location within the borough, on or off-street, will be charged at the applicable tariff rate.

Council leader Alessandro Georgiou praised the plans, claiming they were an example of his Tory minority administration, formed after May’s local election, going “above and beyond” its manifesto promises.

Chris Dey, chief whip of the local authority’s Conservative group, agreed, saying: “I really think it will be a draw that will help people and help our town centres.”

The change, Cllr Dey said, would allow them to compete with retail parks and supermarkets that already offer free parking to customers.

Cabinet member for council assets Edward Smith added that, if the public consultation for the proposals provides the stamp of approval expected, the local authority should monitor “the beneficial impacts” of the policy going forward.

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