Multi-million pound loss from parking in Richmond due to pandemic

By The Editor

6th Sep 2020 | Local News

Richmond Council estimates it has lost nearly £6 million in income from parking fees and fines due to the coronavirus pandemic.

At a meeting of the Transport and Air Quality Committee, officers said the impact of the pandemic was thought to have reduced parking income by £5.758 million against a budgeted total income of £16.2 million.

Overall, the transport committee estimates to have lost £6.137 million, with the remaining reduction in income caused by a lower level of fees received for network management, such as event income related to Twickenham Rugby Stadium, and inspection and enforcement.

Presenting the report, director of environment and community services Paul Chadwick said: "Stepping away from Covid, the budget situation is OK.

"We're about £200,000 overspent at this stage in the year, and that's not a bad position to be in. However, of course it doesn't ignore Covid.

"The biggest single issue for this committee is that we ceased or paused our parking attendant activity early on in the pandemic and of course alongside that anyway there was a massive reduction in the use of the car driven by covid.

Read more: Car parking scam in Richmond town centre

"At this stage the report is showing the impact on our income will be about £6m.

"That's possibly an over-estimate at this stage. If anything the figure is going to come down.

"But we want to be a little bit cautious of that given that you never know [if] we might enter into another wave of the pandemic."

He also expressed a concern that the government will "not entirely back that income loss".

"We're pretty sure they won't," Mr Chadwick said. "There will be an income deficit after the government has made its contribution towards the council."

Richmond Nub News on social media

Join the conversation on our Facebook page

Or send us a tweet and tell us your view.

     

New richmond Jobs Section Launched!!
Vacancies updated hourly!!
Click here: richmond jobs

Share:

Related Articles

Looking for a job? There are a lot of roles available in Richmond right now (credit: Cesar Medina).
Local News

Five jobs available near Richmond right now: Electrician, sales consultant and delivery driver roles

An artist impression of the redeveloped Orange Tree Theatre (credit: Allies and Morrison).
Local News

Richmond: Orange Tree Theatre announce £4m redevelopment project

Sign-Up for our FREE Newsletter

We want to provide richmond with more and more clickbait-free local news.
To do that, we need a loyal newsletter following.
Help us survive and sign up to our FREE weekly newsletter.

Already subscribed? Thank you. Just press X or click here.
We won't pass your details on to anyone else.
By clicking the Subscribe button you agree to our Privacy Policy.