New year sees introduction of new charges in council-owned car parks in town

Do you park in town centre car parks operated by Wrexham Council? Be aware that new parking fees and tariffs are now in place.

As has been documented (and well received from the public) during December there was free parking available in all council car parks in the town centre as a Christmas present to everyone.

This initiative is now over and as of yesterday new charges have been introduced. However it must be noted as we always get asked, these changes do not affect privately owned car parks in town!

The changes were approved in October 2017 by executive board councillors, despite calls for “bolder” new initiatives from opposition councillors.

Signage warning visitors about changes to the charges were installed at council-owned car parks, with details of the new tariffs which were approved by the board last year, detailed below.

One of the key changes passed by the board is the introduction of 1-3 hour parking tariff, which is now available in all council-owned car parks for £1.80. For those who park at Tŷ Pawb and Waterworld, this is a 20p reduction on the previous costs. However it is a 30p increase at Crescent Road.

There has also been a reduction in the all-day charge to £3 between Monday to Friday at Waterworld / Crown Buildings car parks. Previously it cost £4 to park at the site for over three hours.

Two town centre car parks have also seen increases in their charges, with all day parking at Crescent Road moving from £1.50 to £2 to park all day.

Tŷ Pawb is the second to see a parking increase, moving from 50p to £1 to park for an hour. There would also be an increase in the all day charge from £2 to £2.50. Such changes feature as part of the business plan for the new arts and market development.

Crescent Road and Tŷ Pawb car parks will also see the removal of ‘free after three’ – an initiative which replaced the ‘free after midday’ scheme in 2013.

As a result parking charges will be in place until 6pm at both car parks, along with the introduction of a £1 evening charge from 6pm until midnight. This is the same price as other car parks between 6pm and 11:59pm.

Due to the ‘free after three’ scheme, parking in the evenings in Crescent Road and Tŷ Pawb had been free for several years.

*After spotting the top sign in town on the 28th December asked Wrexham Council to see if there were any further details on the changes to the car parking charges. However due to the festive and New Years period, at the time of writing we have not got the full details. We are told there was a whacking multi-page statutory notice in The Leader last Thursday to communicate the changes, which likely cost hundreds if not thousands of pounds to let people know what was going on legally. We did ask Wrexham Council last Friday for further information on this, however had no comment on that either as of yet, nor full details despite wanting to communicate it for free.