A seaside council claims they’ve been “very successful” in getting people to walk and cycle, but that the rise has caused a shortfall in their budget.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council report that parking income is around seven percent below budget targets, despite the deputy leader of the council admitting, “the amount of money we receive for parking charges actually increased, but it hasn’t increased by as much as we were forecasting,” the Bournemouth Echo reports.
Mike Cox, a Liberal Democrat, told a council meeting, “What we haven’t done, and what other people have not done, is take account of people’s changing habits because of the cost-of-living crisis.
“People are changing their habits and the way they do things. We are trying to encourage people to walk and cycle as much as possible, and that would automatically mean lower parking revenue.
“To an extent, you might turn around and say we’ve been very successful in getting people to cycle and walk. Unfortunately, the issue has been, there has been less parking income.”
BCP Council has long suffered with some of the highest rates of traffic congestion in the country during holiday seasons. In response, the council, which has been Liberal Democrat-run in coalition with local resident’s associations and independents, has launched a £102 million Transforming Travel initiative aimed at promoting residents to switch to walking and cycling in the area.
The council’s official Tourism Strategy, published in 2023, also includes delivering “co-ordinated investment in cycle/ walking/ heritage/ culture wayfinding infrastructure” by the end of 2026, and longer-term pledges to develop “convenient, integrated and sustainable and environmentally friendly transport meeting the needs of visitors to and across major visitor hubs.”
Included within that pledge is a “town centre parking strategy”, though it’s unclear what the aims and ambitions of the strategy would entail. The latest parking report published by the council shows the total number of on-street parking places remained unchanged from 2024 to 2025, whilst the number of off-street parking places declined by 40 to 18,537. The same report found that council car parking generated more than £27 million in revenue and £16 million in income.
However, not every piece of active travel infrastructure has been universally welcomed, including a £17 million cycle lane with a single zebra crossing stripe at one point. The cycle lane has been criticised as a waste of money by local motorists and Reform UK supporters.
The party, which did not contest the last elections in the area but is believed to be targeting the council in next year’s local elections, has also pledged to re-open a through road to vehicles in Poole Park that was frequently used as a rat-run before it was shut to cars in 2024. The same day Poole Town Councillors announced their proposal, a motorist drove into the park’s lake.
1 thought on “Council claims more people cycling causing budget shortfall, despite car park income increasing”
Its strange to budget off of money you never had. There is no way they could ever know how many of those cyclists would have otherwise visited the town. In fact many may of visited precisely because they could cycle and not be burdened with extortionate parking charges. In which case they probably made more money in the town from visitors paying into the local economy. But they fail to see that side. Better to have money trickle through you economy benefitting businesses than just a parking tax.