Horsham parking charges set to rise

Hourly rates at The Forum, London Road and Denne Road are all due to be increased by Horsham District Council, while season tickets for Swan Walk and The Forum are also set to go up.

Cabinet members are also proposing a 3.56 per cent council tax increase, the equivalent of an extra £5 a year for a Band D property.

Meanwhile the green waste collection charge is set to rise to £39 if paid online or by direct debit, or £41.50 if paid via the contact centre.

Brian Donnelly, cabinet member for finance and assets, said: “I am pleased that despite the disappearance of the revenue support grant from central Government, we have been able to maintain our pledge of not increasing council tax by more than inflation and we continue to have the lowest council tax in West Sussex.

“In the coming year we will continue our programme of investment to enable the council to become entirely self-financing, and I am pleased to note that this budget reflects significant areas of income growth from the property investment fund.

“At a time when the pressure on local authority finances remains as great as ever, it is commendable that the council is delivering as strong a budget as this and we continue to invest in projects that make our district one of the best places to live in the country.”

The proposals will be discussed next Thursday (January 25), while the 2018/19 budget will go before all councillors for approval in February.

The Forum Car Park will see the minimum charge for up to two hours increased to £1.80 from £1.60, up to three hours £2.70 (from £2.30), up to four £3.60 (£3.00), up to five £4.50 (£3.80), up to six £5.40 (£4.50), up to eight £7.20 (£6), and more than eight hours £9 (from £7.50).

At London Road the up to one hour charge will rise from £1.00 to £1.20, while visitors will have to pay £2.40 for up to two hours, up from £1.80.

Meanwhile Denne Road Car Park will see its fees for up to one hour rise from £1.20 to £1.40, up to two hours from £2.40 to £2.90 and up to three hours from £3.60 to £4.20.

Rolling day and season tickets are also set to rise.

The price of five, ten, 15, 20 and 25 day tickets for both The Forum and Swan Walk are both set to go up.

For the Forum the charge will rise from £3.50 to £3.95 a day, while at Swan Walk it will go up from £5 to £5.50 a day.

The annual season tickets will see the following increases: Swan Walk from £1,220 to £1,325, The Forum from £858 to £955, Dukes Square from £744 to £840, Talbot Lane from £1,108 to £1,245, and London Road from £852 to £955.

It is expected that the proposed targeted tariff increases in specific car parks will generate an additional £150k annual income for the council.

Meanwhile the council is planning to invest in rural car parks to improve layouts and where possible increase capacity following the introduction of the Annual Rural Parking Disc Scheme last April.

Gordon Lindsay, cabinet member for the local economy, said: “By standardising parking prices across the town we are looking to improve the spread of usage across all available car parks and reduce overuse in certain car parks.

“The proposed changes will also create a better price balance between the hourly, daily and annual costs for parking.

“Approving the rural car park improvement plan will allow us to progress with enhancements to rural car parks that we agreed when the Annual Parking Disc Scheme was introduced last year.”

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