Still wondering about the end of Sunderland’s Free After Three parking

Spectacular misconceptions exist, willful and otherwise, over what councils own and what their powers are.

However, Sunderland’s council does run car parks, so we’re entitled to wonder why the Free After Three parking scheme ends in January.

Sunderland’s car parks remain excellent, but the move has has drawn anger.

One gentleman harangued me about it in a shop (I don’t know why). It was a foul-mouthed rant too. Swearing like an Education Secretary he was.

Nevertheless the council somewhat gamefully, denies the scheme is ending as five smaller car parks will continue with it.

But including the 940 bays in the privately owned Bridges car parks, 2,821 city centre car park spaces will not be Free After Three from January.

The five car parks still offering it have a combined 265 spaces; meaning the scheme goes pop in all but 8% of bays.

Even then, not everyone considers all of the 8% to be city centre. For example, Gorse Road car park is around 15 minutes’ walk from City Hall.

Therefore the perception of the average punter, and local business, is that Free After Three is all but kaput.

The council said: “It is a fact that free parking after 3pm does nothing to attract more people into the city centre; rather, research undertaken to inform this proposal confirms that it is those who would be here anyway who are taking advantage of this incentive.”

This suggests that the only drivers to be clobbered will be workers; including council workers and those yet to even start jobs on the Vaux site.

Environmental concerns are also proffered.

But if the scheme doesn’t attract more cars anyway, what difference can dumping it make to the environment?

Another question to consider is unanswerable.

How much quieter still would the city centre trading have been in recent years had Free After Three not existed?

The council presumably acted in good faith and some free parking will remain – yet the reasons for change are not abundantly obvious.