Link for legal reasons (http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=720194)

COUNCIL chiefs in Sheffield look set to approve a huge multi-million pound expansion in car parking spaces in a move aimed at boosting the struggling local economy.

The new 10-year car parking strategy for the city centre aims to boost the number of spaces in the city by 500.
City chiefs believe Sheff-ield's ambitions of re-establishing itself among the elite of northern cities depend partly upon creating a more accessible city centre. Manchester and Leeds both easily outstrip Sheffield in the number of places they can offer motorists.
Extra car parking capacity is also viewed as crucial to underpin planned regeneration projects such as the e-campus and the new retail quarter. New car parks are already planned within the new retail quarter as part of the John Lewis development and within the Heart of the City.
But two further new sites for multi-storey car parks have been identified, one in the West Street area and one in Eyre Street to serve The Moor, the Cultural Industries Quarter and, possibly, the mooted new market.
This should bring the total number of major car parks in the city up to 13 with a total of 9,500 spaces.
Discussions have already begun and the new West Street car park should be up and running by the middle of 2005.
Council leader Jan Wilson said increasing the number of car park spaces was fundamental to the regeneration of the city centre. She said: "We recognise that car parking is extremely important for visitors and shoppers and this strategy increases the number of car parking spaces.
"We want to support businesses by providing good quality safe and secure car parks for their customers and for visitors to the cultural, entertainment and leisure facilities.
"But at the same time we will continue to press for better public transport links for commuters."
Coun Wilson added commuters would be encouraged to leave the car at home and use the bus.
The authority was working to ensure that each sector of the city centre had an accessible car park with electronic signs indicating if spaces were available, she added.
Access to and from the car parks would be co-ordinated to prevent hold ups and all new parks would have CCTV.
On street and disabled parking is also being examined as part of the overall strategy.
The changes will mean many of the smaller car parks will disappear. The new car parks will be privately operated.
The plans are due to be approved by the council's development, environment and leisure committee on January 14.

Did you see that article in the Telegraph recently? About the fact the council have closed half the carpark on Carver Street for the last year, without issuing any particular reason. According to a letter in the paper, this could have lost them up to £75,000 in income! You think a logical way of creating more spaces would be to address this particular car park first.

Nevertheless, I'm glad they are finally addressing the issue of parking.

Not sure if thats really good news or not. I think one of the real issues is that they are approving residential developments with not enough car parking for residents. Residents bring more money in to the centre than weekend shoppers. The lack of parking seems to me to be devaluing some apartments already, the knock on effects from that could potentially be bad (and could IMO lead to what some people said would happen, and these flat/apartments could end up like the council flats of the 70's and 80's).

The apartments i have seen in Leeds have ample parking built in to the development it's self so there is no impact on street parking. I know of several apartments block that must have been through planning in the last few years, they have little parking. Where i live only about 10% of the apartments have parking available in the development, you will not find a demographic where only 10% have cars, infact i would think you would be hard pressed to find 50%. And if you choose to live in the city, your car will tend to be parked up more as you need it less (which again IMO is the best for everybody apart from the petrol companies ;)). What they seem to have been forced to do is reduce the price of on street parking (which they have done around our apartment), again they are trying to correct a mistake they made during planning, and by doing so they are reducing revenue.

I think the planning office has made several big mistakes in these apartment blocks, unsustainable mistakes. To say 'well these apartments are for people without cars' is very naive (IMO). The world just doesn't tick like that at all.

Still it's good news for visitors and probable the people who work around the hostpital or near the Stadiums. And with the parking at meadowhall being absolutly crazy most days hopefully it will bring people back in to the center for shopping.

They attempted to overcome the lack of car parking at Riverside Exchange by building a multi-storey car park on the site - which has now been given planning permission for another two storeys.

This car park closes at 10pm most days - and is closed altogether on Sundays. That might be OK for the office blocks on the site - but is absolutely no use for the residents at Riverside Exchange.

Work has now started on another apartment block, which has minimal car parking incorporated in the development.

Parking restrictions have been increased in the area, with the introduction of double yellow lines.

The Council's argument assumes that if you live in the City Centre, you work in the City Centre and, therefore, have no use for a car. That only works for some residents - probably a minority.

But, as these are our homes, it would be nice to invite people round for dinner. Guests have three options, if they drive:


Park on site, with the risk of being clamped
Park on adjacent roads, with the risk of getting a parking ticket
Park in the multi storey, with the risk of your car being locked in overnight, or for a full day if you park on Saturday night!


Welcome to Riverside Exchange!

Originally posted by MrHelicopter
The Council's argument assumes that if you live in the City Centre, you work in the City Centre and, therefore, have no use for a car. That only works for some residents - probably a minority.
They must also assume that all your family and friends live within walking/bus distance and that people who live in the city centre never like to venture out to the Peaks etc.

It wouldn't be as bad if the risk of roadside parking in the city centre wasn't so high. Regent Street has to be the no. 1 city centre road for car break-in's, yet the police/council seem happy to issue out incident numbers rather than actually try and curb the problem.

Thats another great point Max, family and friends. Where i am we have two big blocks of student accommodation. So it's great when they go home, lot's of paid street parking. But during term time it's a nightmare. Also when there is a soccer game on people park on and around our streets even though there is a NCP car park just across the road. People will always go for the cheap option if they can, thats the real world. The students have family and friends, so do we. But on top of that for the council to say 'you live in the city work in the city so why doyou need a car?' is an insult. I like the idea of using a car less, i use it FAR less now than i ever did. But to visit places outside Sheffield i need my car, i need my car for work (most people at least have to travel at work) and i purposely live in the city so i use my car less, thus helping the environment, traffic congestion etc. To have that kicked back in my face because somebody at the council made a mistake and is using this to turn the argument around is insulting. Other cities can get the balance right, just not Sheffield.

I am not really effected by car crime too much, and don't mind paying street parking either. But they are loosing revenue from mistakes, i would like to bet they have loose tens of thousands a year by reducing the price of parking and it's all on the council tax bill. People do make mistakes, but they seem to have been making this error for years, all over Sheffield.

It would be nice to hear from somebody from the council on this.

Originally posted by Geoff
Did you see that article in the Telegraph recently? About the fact the council have closed half the carpark on Carver Street for the last year, without issuing any particular reason. According to a letter in the paper, this could have lost them up to £75,000 in income! You think a logical way of creating more spaces would be to address this particular car park first.


A later letter has put the original correspondant right. The property is not owned by the council but by a private company who decided to close the car park a year ago and, for no apparent reason, has left it unavailable for car parking.

If the original correspondant had looked at the site rather than relying on anecdotal evidence he would have seen the huge notice boards advertising the land for sale.

Yet another example of let's blame the council for everything.

Originally posted by Geoff
Did you see that article in the Telegraph recently? About the fact the council have closed half the carpark on Carver Street for the last year, without issuing any particular reason. According to a letter in the paper, this could have lost them up to £75,000 in income! You think a logical way of creating more spaces would be to address this particular car park first.

Nevertheless, I'm glad they are finally addressing the issue of parking.
The car park doesn't belong to them - it belongs to a property developer who the council is trying to stop developing the site so it doesn't mess up their shopping centre plans.

I understand that the developer is happy for the Council to buy it, but the Council doesn't want to pay the market rate and has effectively blighted the site. Therefore, the developer has shut down the car park and is marketing the site with a view to developing it shortly. It will be interesting to see how it progresses.