Free parking at Gedling Country Park could be scrapped and replaced with minimum fee

A consultation will now take place with a charge potentially bringing in an extra £200,000

A popular country park could start charging visitors to the park to boost the site's income. A Gedling Borough Council report says it wants to bring in a minimum £2 parking fee for Gedling Country Park.

Regulations mean the council is not allowed to charge people for parking at the country park, with the exception of donations, until it has run a consultation first and changed a legal order. Parking has been free since the site opened in 2014 and in December 2017 voluntary donations were introduced to help.

Between £4,000 and £6,000 has been made per year from donations, the report says. It adds the council wants to “maximise” the income the park produces, and says £2 is a competitive charge compared to other Nottinghamshire parks.

This planned fee will be used in the public consultation needed to amend the regulations around parking. Alongside new charges, the council is also looking at introducing a pay-by-phone parking service across council-owned car parks in the borough, involving people paying via a smartphone app.

The council also wants to update existing machines to take card payments. Papers read: “Introducing a cashless option would not only make it easier for users to pay for parking but it may also encourage users to stay longer as it would be possible to extend parking via the app remotely.”

Gedling Borough Council currently uses its existing budget for any maintenance at the park, which has 250 car parking spaces. Council documents note the upper car park has “major problems” with potholes, with repair money coming from other revenue streams.

If charges are not introduced, the council says it would “limit the extent of further developments and/or major repairs due to a need to borrow”. It is expected new parking fees would mean fewer cars would use the site but the expected income could generate up to £200,000 for the council.

A successful consultation would see the council revoke its current legal order and replace it with an updated one to allow charging. A final parking charge figure would be approved at a future council cabinet meeting following the outcome of the public consultation.