Thimblerow car park in Perth city centre is at nearly 90% capacity during peak weekend times, council figures show.
The under-threat location is where the local authority hopes to build a controversial new leisure centre despite an overwhelming backlash against the plan.
The proposal, which was narrowly voted through by 20 votes to 18, does not include a dedicated leisure pool or ice rink facilities.
Car parking was a hotly debated topic during the discussion with Perth set to lose 335 spaces in the plan.
Findings from Saturday August 24 show Thimblerow reaching 89% capacity between the hours of 1.30pm and 3pm.
It did not drop below 88% capacity between 9.30am and 3pm.
Four other car parks in the city centre were 100% full during those hours.
Popular car parks at capacity for hours
During last week’s meeting, council officers revealed they hadn’t conducted a comprehensive car parking survey of the Fair City since 2017.
However, a snapshot overview conducted by the local authority has revealed Thimblerow remains popular.
The figures, which were found in an elected members briefing note, showed that all but one car park in the zones located closest to the city centre operated at over 50% capacity during peak times.
Scott Street, Canal Street, West Mill Street and Mill Wynd were all at capacity for 5.5 hours on the Saturday.
Despite the peak time figures, the council recorded Thimblerow as being at 66% capacity overall by taking into account less busy hours.
Scott Street, which ran at capacity for hours, was noted as 84% full.
Kinnoull Street and Mill Street East car parks were not monitored as part of the survey.
Car parks further away from city centre
In car parks further away from the city centre, in zone 3, council findings showed greater availability.
However, Bell’s Sports Centre car park still showed 70% of spaces used that Saturday between 1pm to 3.30pm.
Only 32% of South Inch spaces were used during this time.
The 374 spaces at Glover Street and Dewars Centre weren’t monitored.
The 200 car parking spaces at Glover Street are set to be lost in the new Perth leisure plans with 150 houses earmarked for the site.
Council officers concluded this showed only 51% of spaces in zone 3 were used at peak times and 39% overall.
Report conclusion questionable
Council officers combined the figures from zones 1,2 and 3 to conclude that car parks in Perth as a whole are used less than 50% of the time.
However, in the car parks located closest to the city centre, their own survey shows they are at 79% capacity during peak hours on a Saturday.
Despite these findings, strategic lead for property services Stephen Crawford, fails to distinguish between location and time of day in his conclusion.
He said: “On average the majority of car parks in Perth city centre are less than 50% utilised overall.
“This finding challenges the common perception of a parking shortage.
“Scott Street, Canal Street, Mill Wynd and Speygate car parks are regularly 90-100% utilised during peak hours.
“This suggests that the perception of a parking shortage may stem from users being unable to park in their preferred locations, rather than a scarcity of parking spaces.”
A full parking study is taking place this month and officers have agreed to monitor the situation.
A former employee of Perth Leisure Pool started a petition to overturn the decision to build the scaled back version of PH2O without a dedicated leisure pool at Thimblerow.
The petition can be signed here.
Conversation