Parking Charges in Liverpool are Facing a Hike

When you want to attract people to your area, the last thing that you should be doing is charging them exorbitant fees to park their car on the streets during their visit.
In this day and age of global warming, it is right to discourage people form driving, of course, but the fact that train fares are so ridiculously expensive means that few people have much choice but to jump behind the wheel if they want to go somewhere.
The bad news for visitors to Liverpool is that changes are due to go up by as much as 60% in 2025, putting people with little money under even more financial pressure at a time when it is least needed.
Council Trying to Raise Money
As Liverpool City Council began to look at the budget for 2025, it was noticed that there was a financial blackhole amounting to roughly £29 million.
As soaring costs have had just as much of an impact on councils as they have on ordinary people, Liverpool City Council is one of many that are trying to figure out how to pay for the likes of social care and to help those that are homeless.
One of the ways that the Council believes that it can bring in some more dough is by hiking the cost to drivers that look to park in council-owned car parks around the city centre, whether they be open-air ones or multi-storey options.
LCC just signed a death notice for all shops & restaurants in town with them car park rises from next March. People will just opt to go to retail parks or order online be a lot cheaper. Absolutely clueless the running of this City!
— Anna mn (@Annakopite) December 10, 2024
The Council bosses are quick to point out that this will be the first time that prices will have gone up in over ten years, which certainly has some merit to it. Those that need to drive because of work or the expensive of train tickets, however, will no doubt be quick to point out that we are still in the middle of a Cost of Living crisis, with parking charge rises hardly likely to help.
The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
With Liverpool generating the lowest net income from parking services of any of the ‘Core Cities’ of the UK, there is no question that this is an area more money can be brought in. The problem for people is that it might make it unaffordable.
Prices Rising by up to 60%
How much the price of parking is going up by will largely depend on where you park.
Council-owned multi-storey car parks will see their prices rise by 39.69%. This means that parking your car in the likes of Victoria Street or Mount Pleasant for more than three hours will shift from around £5 to just shy of £7. Off-street parking, meanwhile, will go up by 47.28%, meaning that if you were to park in the surface car park on Dale Street then you will no be looking at a cost of £11.78 for more than five hours of parking, rather than the current rate of £8.
It is on-street parking that is due to face the largest hike of all areas, however.
@englandandtravel How expensive is 24-hour parking in Liverpool? #fyp #travel #liverpool #Europe ♬ original sound – England and travelling
The on-street price will increase by an average of 60%. Someone who has previously parked in a city centre bay and paid £6 for the privilege will now be looking at a fee of £9.60 for four hours. One of the few areas that won’t see a price rise will be the multi-storey car park in Paddington Village, which serves the Royal Liverpool Hospital.
The fees there will be frozen for the first three hours, meaning that you won’t have to pay more than you currently do in order to go and visit a patient in the hospital or if you need to go in for an appointment, provided you are back in your car and on the road within three hours of your arrival.
Is it the Right Thing to Do?
The question that many people will be asking themselves is whether or not this is the right thing to do.
On the one hand, Liverpool is one of the country’s most financially poor cities, so many people will struggle to cope with the rising costs alongside the fact that they’re also having to pay more for the likes of petrol, food and heating their homes. On the other hand, the Council makes the argument that they only control less than a third of the parking spaces around the city and they will still be competitive when compared to the private operators.
Of course, said private operators will doubtless put their own prices up in response.
The average amount brought in from parking spaces in the other Core Cities, which includes the likes of Newcastle, Leeds and Glasgow, is £10.603 million. Liverpool, meanwhile, brought in £3.839 million in 2023-2024.
Visitors from outside of the area are unlikely to be put off driving into the city because of the cost of parking their car, therefore, but it is the locals that are going to bear the brunt of the price rises.
It would be nice to think that Merseyrail would reduce ticket prices to help people make the decision to take the train into town instead, but the reality is that they will almost certainly hike their prices up even higher.