New parking charge for major tourist attractions
ONE of Birmingham’s most visited tourist attractions is to introduce car parking charges for the first time.
Cannon Hill Park, the Mac arts centre and the neighbouring Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park, in Edgbaston, will see parking meters switched on next month.
The initial charges are being set at £2 for the first four hours and £3 for the day.
Charges will apply all day, every day from Monday, October 2 and are set be reviewed after six months and then annually.
The council has forecast a 20 per cent reduction in car park usage because of the fees.
The introduction of parking charges at Cannon Hill has long been mooted but was postponed in May after a council watchdog committee discovered bosses had not properly consulted the park’s users over the proposals.
Deborah Kermode, Mac Birmingham’s chief executive and artistic director, said the charges had become “inevitable”.
Opened in 1962, the Mac is the UK’s 11th most-visited free attraction with a mission statement “to make art an important part of people’s lives”.
In a draft letter due to be pub- lished for customers, Ms Kermode has written: “We are concerned that Mac’s attendances may suffer, particularly for those under financial constraints. “We are constantly looking at ways of being more sustainable yet remaining competitively priced to ensure we fulfil our ethos of ‘arts for all’.” The cost of installing the meters and other upgrade work is expected to come to £450,000 and is part of an overall strategy to introduce charges across other city council parks. A city council report published in April forecast a 20 per cent reduction in usage of Cannon Hill Park car park even though it was part of a ‘commercialism approach’.
It added the “introduction of the parking scheme will continue to support the council’s longer-term principles to promote and support green transport options and reduce car use across the city”.
The first full year of the charges is forecast to generate a surplus of £160,000 prior to borrowing costs and distributions, with Mac Birmingham receiving a 50 per cent share of the operating surplus before capital financing costs.
The report said the car parking charges would fund safety improvements including lighting and CCTV and that Mac Birmingham would help to manage the car park.
The city council’s 2017/18 budget saw a reduction to the parks budget of ten per cent.
Cannon Hill Park was gifted to the city in 1873 by benefactor Louisa Ryland.
She said: “Through the bounty of God I have the great pleasure of giving Cannon Hill Park to the Corporation of Birmingham for the use of the inhabitants and neighbours.
“I would express my earnest hope that the park may prove to be a source of healthful recreation to the people of Birmingham and that they will aid in the protection and preservation of what is now their own property.”
We are concerned that Mac’s attendances may suffer, particularly for those under financial constraints. Deborah Kermode, Mac Birmingham’