Free parking after 3pm, seven days a week, will be available in three Carlisle City Council car parks until Monday 31 August 2020.
The Free after Three scheme parking initiative was due to end at the end of March, but the council’s Executive has taken a decision to extend the scheme to the end of August 2020.
The decision was taken by the Executive at their meeting on Monday 10 February.
The Free after 3pm scheme aims to support high street businesses in Carlisle by encouraging more visitors to park-up and discover the many city centre attractions, shops and places to eat.
The pilot scheme started on Thursday 1 August 2019 and provides around 1,000 free parking spaces after 3pm in the following city centre based car parks (for all permitted vehicles):
- Caldew Riverside;
- Castle; and
- Viaduct.
Carlisle City Cllr Nigel Christian, Portfolio holder for Environment and Transport, said:
“The free parking scheme aims to support our high street businesses. Extending it will give us a clearer picture of how effective it was at encouraging more shoppers into the city centre.
There’s been a number of issues, such as the extended period in which roadworks have been conducted on Warwick Road. We’ve also had the closure of Victoria Viaduct as well, which will undoubtedly have had an impact.
With the scheme extended, we’ll get to a period of stability where we can properly work out just what sort of an impact it’s having on the city centre. If we’re going to properly understand what’s going on, we need to run it for longer.”
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