Amble car park will be free for first hour
The car park in Turner Street will be free for the first hour, once redevelopment work is completed, the Ambler has learned.
The car park on Turner St is undergoing renovations and an extension. Further works are due to start in May, for completion in late July or early August.
Original proposals for the town centre car park had always included a charge in order to justify the expense of buying and redeveloping the space.
However, in the February county council meeting, Glen Sanderson, leader of Northumberland County Council, announced that NCC would not impose charges in their town centre car parks.
Cllr Glen Sanderson made the announcement in February 2022
He told councillors, “We are investing in new car parking spaces and we’ve agreed once again, to be one of the very few councils in the country that will not charge for town centre car parks. We do this to support our businesses and market towns, for the benefit of tourism, and also for residents.”
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In view of this, the Ambler asked for clarification on the situation regarding potential charges in the Turner Street car park. Paul Jones, Service Director – Local Services told us:
“The County Council has agreed to commit £1.9m in capital funding to provide additional parking capacity at Turner Street car park in Amble, with the primary purpose of the car park being to help support the growing demand for visitor/tourist parking in the town.
The number of parking spaces will be increased from 49 to 134, and six electric charging points will be installed.
“Parking charges will be implemented at the new visitor car park once the redevelopment works are completed as it was considered necessary to have some income from parking charges to help improve the value for money of this scheme given the significant capital investment being made.
“However, it should be noted that we will make provision for users to park for free for the first hour, so that it can also be used by local residents who want to pop into the town centre to access the local shops/businesses.
“We will also be maintaining the free on-street parking arrangements currently in place in Amble along with the existing arrangements at NCCs short stay Queen Street car park which allow free parking with max one hour stay.”
Anna Williams
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