Organisers of a trial that has slashed the cost of parking in Kirkcaldy town centre say they are quietly optimistic about its impact on trade.
Bill Harvey, the manager of BID group Kirkcaldy4All, says that while he is “not counting his chickens” that the revised rates will be adopted permanently, he has been encouraged by an apparent increase in people using town car parks.
“We’ve had plenty of feedback from retailers and all of it has been positive,” he told The Courier.
“It looks like there has been an increase of cars by around 10 to 15% within the car parks.
“It has been skewed slightly because the ticket machine at the old Tesco car park was broken for two weeks and people were parking for free.
“But the Esplanade car park is now open until 10.30 at night for people using the leisure centre, and that has been helpful.”
The six-month trial was launched in September with a view to boosting footfall within the town centre.
Having been affected terribly by the economic downturn, the green shoots of recovery have emerged recently.
However, the issue of parking charges has long been seen as a hurdle to allowing the traditional shopping precinct to compete with the Fife Central Retail Park on the town’s northern edge.
Short-stay parking between one and two hours has been reduced by 50p to £1 during the trial period, which is due to run until March 31.
Meanwhile, long-stay charges have been reduced from £2.50 to £2 for two to four hours and from £3.60 to £3 for periods of more than four hours.
The cost of a quarterly season ticket has been reduced from £120 to £60, effectively £1 a day for somebody working a five-day week in the town centre.
Fife Council expects to make a loss of between £25,000 and £30,000 over the trial period, but a significant increase in footfall may offset this.
With more than three months of the initiative left, Mr Harvey added: “Everyone says that parking is a turn-off for visiting the town centre, but this trial is about finding out whether that is actually the case.”