Barnet Council’s new Environment Committee is to consider a draft Parking Policy for the borough.
The policy outlines how the council plans to manage the pressures on the road network caused by Barnet’s 145,000 cars, and to ensure as much as possible that there are adequate parking places available on the high street. It proposes varied town centre parking charges across the borough, to meet an 85 per cent target for on and off-street parking spaces being occupied.
This is deemed to be the right mix between having the majority of spaces full with a regular turnover of shoppers, while ensuring that shoppers do not have to drive around looking for spaces.
Where it fits with the 85 per cent target the council will provide some ‘free for 15 minute’ spaces.
Councillor Dean Cohen, Chair of the Environment Committee, said: “We have run focus groups ahead of preparing the draft policy and we have also been consulting with town centres across the borough for the past 18 months.
“We have found that each town centre or small parade of shops has different needs; some need rapid turnover, some need time for shoppers to browse, so we are not proposing a one size fits all policy. That was the central fault with the previous charging model.”
If approved, the plans would go to a 12 week public consultation starting later this month.
