Perth and Kinross Council has no plans to introduce free parking in Perth despite demands from some quarters.
Conservative members of the local authority are keen on the idea being tried on Saturdays in council car parks mainly to help businesses, particularly in Perth city centre.
The Tories had suggested the plan earlier this year, which if it had been approved would have seen free parking at all council car parks in Perth from noon on Saturdays, for a year. They had also mooted the idea of trying it out in some other towns.
Some Perth residents contacted The Courier after hearing that Edinburgh City Council had announced it would be introducing free parking from 5pm during the Edinburgh Festival.
This will run from August 6 until September 1, and may be repeated during December for the winter festivals in the Scottish capital. The Alive after 5 campaign is being run by Edinburgh City Council, Marketing Edinburgh and Essential Edinburgh, and will result in shops staying open until 7pm
Losses of £55,000 will be incurred as a result but these will be paid for by the three campaign organisers.
Archie Coates (41), of Craigie, Perth, said: ”I think it’s a great idea by Edinburgh City Council to bring in free parking during their festival. It will boost businesses and shops during this time.
”Surely, this is something that could be tried out in Perth to help our ailing city centre.”
Councillor Alexander Stewart said he would favour any idea that could boost business in Perth city centre.
”We have to think of ways to try to interest visitors to the city centre,” he told The Courier. ”One of the ways of making this happen would be to introduce free car parking at some times of the day.”
He continued: ”We had proposed introducing free parking in all council car parks in Perth on Saturdays from noon, for a year. And we still have the feeling that this should be considered by the council.
”Anything that can attempt to improve parking we will support as it helps the business community. The Conservative group on Perth and Kinross Council see this as a priority and we would like to see it tried in some other Perthshire towns.”
But the council says that introducing free car parking would have an ”adverse” effect on the parking service provided in the long-run.
A council spokesman said: ”Suspending car parking charges for an extended period of time would have a significant adverse effect on our car parking budget, which would in turn impact on the service we provide to people who use our car parks.
”The council suspended parking charges on Thursday afternoons in the run-up to Christmas last year to encourage shoppers into Perth city centre. We are currently looking at the impact this had in relation to boosting shopper footfall.”
Car parking has been a bone of contention in Perth and Kinross for some time. In April, the local authority increased parking charges from 80p to 90p per hour.
And the council also agreed to increase the cost of residents’ permits for the ”controlled parking zone” in Perth from £175 to £190 for the inner zone and from £100 to £110 in the outer zone.
One-hour parking in car parks outside Perth was increased from 70p to 80p, and parking charges were also increased at the Bell’s Sports Centre and the Rodney Pavilion car parks.