Charging motorists to use car parks in Southampton suburbs is not driving people away from high streets, according to a senior Labour councillor.
Jacqui Rayment, councillor responsible for transport, defended the decision to scrap two-hour free parking periods and introduce 50 pence charges for the first two hours in district centre car parks last year.
She said there was a “plethora” of reasons why high streets were struggling.
Councillors scrutinised the administration's parking policy after receiving a report reviewing parking demand and footfall since the charges were introduced.
Conservative Steven Galton asked for clarity on the political thinking behind removing free parking.
He said his focus would be on what would support local businesses, keep people in jobs and stop the decline in high streets as much as possible.
Cllr Rayment said: “I don’t believe the minimal charging we charge for short-term is driving people out of our district centres.
"I think there is a whole plethora of reasons why our district centres are struggling.
“Whether that is the amount of barbers and vape shops and charity shops against shops that maybe most people would like to see in their high streets.
“It is not a simple solution as just because you charge 50 pence, footfall is down and people have got to pay more, so I don’t agree with that point.”
Cllr Rayment said officers were carrying out a city-wide car parking charge review to assess the whole picture.
She said she would like to see a policy where it was agreed car parking would go up by a set percentage at a set time interval to avoid repeatedly having a situation of trying to find the right price point.
District centre car parks generated a revenue of £709,991.88 in 2025/26.
The first five months of 2026/27 brought in £293,806.89, which was 2.4 per cent down on the period in the previous year.
Councillors were told the income last year generated a surplus although the exact amount was not given at the overview and scrutiny management committee meeting.
Senior transport planner Richard Alderson said without the charges car parks were not covering their operating costs, which mainly related to business rates.
Mr Alderson said before the charges were introduced more than 90 per cent of drivers used just the two-hour free period.
The report said there had been a noticeable pattern of footfall decline in district centres since 2021, with no noticeable sharp decline since the new tariffs were implemented.
Car parking transactions in the second year of the charges are tracking slightly below the previous year, but the report said this was within expected margin of variation.
Cllr Galton asked if the council would consider trialling a scheme like free Fridays to see whether removing the 50 pence charge increased car park use.
Cllr Rayment said: “I’m open to looking at everything as you would expect me to say.
“We are looking at if we can do anything over a Christmas offer, we are looking at when there’s events on what sort of offer we can put in then.
“There are all sorts of things that are being considered but at the end of the day the money we make from the car parks, we have to maintain those car parks, we have to make sure they are to a good standard and that includes our parking machines and we all know we have had problems with those in the past.
“It is not as simple as saying let’s just make every car park free.
I wish it was.”
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