£100,000 Decline in Penrith Pay and Display Carpark Usage over Last Year

Council owned pay and display carparking in Penrith has seen a sharp drop in usage over the last year according to figures provided by Westmorland and Furness Council for takings at the council owned pay and display carparks in Penrith.

Figures comparing the takings for each of the towns pay and display carparks show that compared to 2022/23 takings in the last 12months of Eden District Council operating the carparks and 2023/24 during the first 12 months of Westmorland and Furness Operating the carparks a drop of  £111,765 during the early part of 2024 parking was made free during the Gas mains works with Penrith BiD making a £2,000 contribution towards parking that the council estimated it had lost £16,000 in carparking revenue during the four months of the gas works.

Amng the towns four full time and town weekend only pay and display carparks, Princess Street has seen parking revenue drop from £33,919 in 2022/23 to just £6,619 in 2023/24.

BlueBell lane carpark has seen usage fall by almost half in over the last year with Sandgate also having a drop in usage.

Mansion House has bucked the trend with an increase in usage with the parking available at Weekends only increasing from £2,914 in 2022/23 to £10,655 in 2023/24.

In addition to the per usage revenue the council also issues a limited number of season tickets per carpark with the revenue for season tickets across all six carparks in 2022/23 £21,246 and in 2023/24 £22,237.

Despite the decline in pay and display parking usage in Penrith the council in the same periods between 2022 and 2024 issued over 12,000 parking penalty notices in Penrith between with the number of parking penalty notices issued remaining at the same average levels as post pandemic levels.

The steep decline in parking revenue in Penrith has been mirrored by a 70% drop in footfall in the town in 2023/24 some businesses in the town centre have said, with the decline having increased further since the closure of Barclays, Lloyds and Halifax in Penrith earlier this year.

The table lists the totals paid for parking in each of the town’s carparks:

Despite the drop in usage Westmorland and Furness council increased charges in all its pay and display car park in Penrith in April 2024 with 2 hours parking now costing £2.40 compared to £1.80 for 2 hours in the council’s carpark in Appleby.

In June Westmorland and Furness Council announced that it was to close a council owned town centre carpark in Barrow in Furness from the start of July following a review. The council said the review found the Portland Walk carpark had ‘very low usage’ leading to concerns among some local businesses over the future of some of Penrith’s carparks due to low usage levels.