by Trevor Bevins, Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Dorset residents paying for parking permits will see an inflation increase from April – while most other car parking charges will remain frozen.
But the man in charge of Dorset Council’s Place services, Councillor Jon Andrews, says the range of permits on offer for residents will still represent great value for money.
Councillors have been told that trying to get an extra £2.5million from increased fees from the directorate in the coming financial year is likely to be a tough ask, given the exclusion of most car parking fees, the biggest income earner. Other council fees will mostly go up by around 5per cent from April, the permits expected to rise by 3.2%.
The meeting heard that some car parks – such as those at the country parks and those operated by the harbours, were not included in the freeze in fees, and could yet see larger rises.
The council’s Lib Dem Cabinet has made the recommendation for a freeze on on-street and off-street parking charges following a public furore in the past year over parking fee increases – which eventually led to a U-turn for some car parks. In Weymouth a petition with more than 7,000 signatures had been raised against the 2025/26 rises.
Corporate Director for Place Jan Britton told a scrutiny committee meeting (Thursday evening) that his team were hoping for a good weather during the coming year to boost car park income, faced with not being able to increase fees. He admitted that achieving the income target from car parks was one of the biggest areas of risk in not meeting the budget.
Committee chairman Noc Lacey-Clarke (Con, Blandford) said he hoped the comment about the weather was a joke as he would not like to see any council budget reliant on the weather to meet financial targets.
Committee members heard that while there was to be a freeze on car parking fees for the coming financial year the authority was still undertaking a complete review of all its parking services – which could result in big changes in years to come. The review is understood to also be looking at introducing pay on exit barriers for some car parks where fee evasion is believed to be an issue.
Other savings for the financial year ahead include £4.2million in children’s services – which the authority hope to achieve through a plan to keep more children in care within the county, rather than using placements outside Dorset, and by concentrating on early intervention and support for families.
Also being targeted is £122,000 extra income from the county’s outdoor education facilities – likely to be achieved by raising fees and charges and adopting what finance director Sean Creamer described as “a more commercial” approach.
