Parking costs in Leeds centre come at a price premium

Prices for Leeds City Council-managed car parks and on street spots vary three fold despite being just over a mile apart.

A tour of the city centre reveals that to leave your car at Quarry Hill will set you back £2 for a hour and £8.50 for more than eight hours - the usual working day.

In contrast though, little more than a mile away in Holbeck and around Springwell Road and neighbouring streets, it is £1 for two hours but just £2.60 if you want to park all day and you get ten hours for your money.

However, with most of the area’s on-street metres out of action, motorists have to pay via phone or an online app to a third party operator Parkmobile, which charges you an extra 25p per day for “convenience”.

It will also hurt the pocket to leave the car around the Park Square areas of the city centre at £1 for just 20 minutes and £7.20 for five hours which will barely take you past lunch-time.

On Hunslet Lane it will cost the usual office worker £7.80 for the full day.

After Holbeck the cheapest place is around the Mabgate Green, Byron Street and Woodhouse Carr areas where parking is priced at £1.10 for two hours and £4.90 for ten hours.

Weekend rates vary for shoppers who can park at Park Place for £1 per hour or Woodhouse Carr beyond the firstdirect arena for just 50p per hour.

A parking spot here was deemed to be one of the cheapest for a city in this country.

Recent data analysed by Leeds-based airport parking price comparison company Looking4.com found Leeds and Edinburgh offer the UK’s joint second cheapest rate for an hour’s parking at just 50p.

Coun Richard Lewis, council member for regeneration, transport and planning said charges were relevant to location and demand but added the council had to bear in mind prices of private operators.

He said: “It is location driven and the council does not have the monopoly on pricing. We have to be competitive with other providers.”

“Some will add 50p on and the others will add 50p on and vice versa.”

He added the council were aware the demand for spaces was high and pricing played an important role in Leeds’s traffic management approach.

There are 2,346 spaces in Leeds City Council-run car parks within the boundaries of the city centre but across the wider area of the city there are 11,302 paid parking spaces and 3,031 free parking spaces.

Tomorrow the series will look at parking issues around Kirkgate Market as traders and customers say high cost and low availability has an impact upon shopping trends.