Rose Street Parking Prices to be lowered from 11 May

Highland Council Community Services have listened to concerns raised about the Rose Street parking charges which were introduced on 1 April and a revised pricing structure will be implemented from today, 11 May.

Parking charges for all time frames over 6 hours, and for monthly passes, have been substantially reduced. Charges for short term parking will remain unchanged, as these remain affordable and competitive with Eastgate Car Park charges.

Officers have taken views into account, together with the remaining need to meet the commitment agreed to increase charges to meet savings targets. Considerable work has been done to re-model the pricing structure to reduce the impact on the public, whilst increasing income and maximising usage.

For example, the cost for 1 day (24 hours) will be £7 instead of £15 (originally £4.50). All the charges can be seen in this table.

The Administration has agreed the revised pricing structure and it will be implemented from Monday 11 May.

Chair of the Community Services Committee, Cllr Graham Mackenzie, welcomed the revised pricing structure. He said:

“The Council is committed to generating over £200,000 through increased parking charges, but I am hopeful that this revised pricing structure will be more acceptable to customers, especially those using longer stays. The higher charges which were initially set may have resulted over time in lower use of the carpark and therefore a reduction in overall income forecasted and a considerable amount of work has been done to re-model the pricing structure to achieve a balance.”

He added: “The car park income is actively monitored on a monthly basis. Data will be analysed for a few months to validate the assumptions made and to analyse the real impact of the price increase on income levels.”