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2,500 car parking spaces for Leeds city centre?
Motorists paying for parking in Leeds city centre. Plans for more spaces in the city will be considered.
Council chiefs will consider plans to authorise nearly 2,500 car parking spaces near Leeds city centre – a year after it threatened to shut them.
Leeds City Council ordered the closure of several unauthorised long-stay car parks in and around Holbeck Urban Village south of the city a year ago, saying they undermined plans to combat congestion.
But it was forced into a u-turn after a public outcry led to a review which found public transport was inadequate.
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The car parks were given a reprieve. Now eight planning applications have been submitted to Leeds City Council for formal consent for parking on Globe Road, Ingram Street, Whitehall Road, Skinner Lane, Ingram Row, Sweet Street, Meadow Road and Jack Lane.
As reported in the YEP last November, enforcement action was planned against the car parks, which were operating without planning permission.
The decision caused uproar among commuters, who said they would have to park further away – and at much greater cost.
Owners of the parking sites lost a subsequent appeal, with the council ruling that long-stay parking went against policies to reduce congestion. But a subsequent review found public transport would fail to meet the resultant demand – partly due to the shelving of the Supertram project.
A council report said: “If we had pursued the enforcement action and extended its scope to other sites, commuter car parking opportunities would have been severely restricted.
“This was not considered appropriate because the delivery of new public transport infrastructure such as Supertram and the provision of park-and-ride schemes had been delayed and were not expected to be delivered in the near future. It was therefore considered it would be the wrong time to clamp down on unauthorised commuter car parks.”
Approval of the car parks would be dependent on their quality and appearance, it added. Applications had to be in by December 19 and will be considered collectively. The council has introduced a “cap” of 3,200 spaces.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
OWNMIND
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 02:20 PMGood. Leeds City Councils stupid idea to prevent cars into the city and force everyone to pay ridiculous prices for overcrowded bus and train serves has harmed trade and placed extra transport costs for commuters. With the coming of the arena and Trinity shopping arcade the city need to welcome visitors not alienate them.
whirlygig
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 02:00 PMgingerkick - if you use First they do a family and friends day rover ticket for £7, although they do keep the fact it exists a bit of a secret. All bus stops should have ticket options and costs posted on them.
Bambadana
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 12:56 PMGet a bike!
LeedsBulldog
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 09:57 AM1gingermick well said mick the same goes for us - where do the bus companys get their prices from ???????????????????.
gingermick
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 09:17 AMGood news for the car parks if they keep prices low, because now it will cost my family £12 on the bus to come into leeds and back home, so back into the car for us.
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