Car parking strategy

Benchmarking

There is a considerable amount of private parking offered in the town centre. The main private pay and display car park is at Lymelight Boulevard (290+ spaces). This provides good quality convenient parking for town centre users and is specifically targeted but not exclusively for the users of the Lymelight Boulevard.

There are a range of retail car parks on or close to the ring road. These provide shoppers with convenient free or refunded parking for the stores. With time limitations of between 1.5 hours to 2 hours this also enables drivers to make other visits whilst in the town.

A breakdown of public and private sector car park comparative data is included in appendix 3: car park comparisons. When comparing the charges for our car parks they are not very different to others. It is known that charges are not the most important factor as convenience and location are crucial. It is, however, important to recognise that the bigger issue for Newcastle town centre is to ensure that there is a good town centre offer.