Why Warwick District Council said no to rolling out pensioner parking scheme with Stratford

Warwick District Council opted against joining forces with neighbouring Stratford-on-Avon to offer concessionary parking permits to pensioners with financial considerations among the concerns.The prospect of over-65s being able to have a limited amount of daily parking in both districts for an annual nominal fee rather than paying each time they park was put forward by Stratford-on-Avon District Council earlier this year as part of the rollout of its own scheme.Residents of Stratford district can apply for the £50 permit and pay no further parking charges for four-hour stays at any time of the day on Bridgeway surface or multi-storey car parks.It came after the new Liberal Democrat leadership, which took power from the Conservatives in May, reintroduced the permits that were initially dropped by the Tories in 2021.As part of the reconsideration of that, officers at Stratford were tasked with contacting their Warwick district counterparts to see if a reciprocal deal could be done, the idea being to benefit both regions through increased footfall.

A report published ahead of the Stratford decision being rubber stamped confirmed that “an approach was made” to Councillor Ian Davison (Green, Leamington Brunswick), leader of Warwick District Council (WDC), but that he had indicated the authority did not want to pursue the option.The report adds: “In his response it was explained that WDC had never had a scheme like this, nor have there been any requests from residents to introduce one.“It was also stated that in their opinion, it would be very hard to administer and police, could be open to abuse, would impact on their parking revenue and, arguably the most important reason for not pursuing it was because they are trying to promote more sustainable travel, that this would conflict with this work.“It is clear, therefore, that this is not an option that can be pursued.”When approached by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Davison confirmed that the Stratford report accurately reflected Warwick’s position before adding more detail on the financial aspect.“If it was there, maybe more people would come to Leamington or Warwick from Stratford, but there is a big financial squeeze on all councils and we have to look at where we can have income,” he said.“In our medium term financial strategy, car parking income needs to go up. We are trying to move in the other direction so it would seem to be against what we are aiming to do.”