The plan would bring in more than forty million a year for buses, but market traders fear it will keep their customers away.
Calder councillors will vote next Wednesday on whether to introduce a daily charge for most vehicles entering the old town, in what would be the biggest change to the city’s streets since the inner ring road was built in the 1970s. Under the proposal, drivers would pay £9 on weekdays between 7am and 7pm to enter a zone bounded by the canal, Castle Hill and the railway viaduct, with a lower £5 rate at weekends.
Officers at City Hall estimate the scheme would raise between £41 million and £46 million a year once running costs are deducted. By law, the money would have to be spent on transport, and the cabinet has already set out how it would use the first three years of income: more frequent buses on the six busiest routes, a new night service to the hill towns, free fares for under-18s and a park-and-ride site off the Selwyn road with room for 1,200 cars.
How the zone would work
Cameras at fourteen entry points would read number plates, and drivers would pay online or by phone by midnight the following day. Residents inside the zone would get a 90 per cent discount, blue badge holders and registered carers would be exempt, and delivery vans would pay the full rate unless they arrive before 7am. Buses, taxis and licensed private hire vehicles would not pay. The scheme would begin in September next year if approved, after a six-month warning period in which drivers would receive letters rather than fines.
Traffic modelling commissioned by the council suggests vehicle numbers in the zone would fall by around a fifth in the first year. Air quality on Market Street and Tanners Lane, which has breached legal limits for nitrogen dioxide in four of the past five years, would be expected to fall within limits by the second year.
Traders say they will bear the cost
The strongest opposition has come from the old town’s market traders and small shopkeepers, who argue that their customers come from across the valley and that many will simply stop coming. The Covered Market Traders’ Association has collected more than 7,000 signatures on a petition asking for the vote to be postponed until a full economic impact study has been carried out.
“My customers are pensioners from the villages who come in once a week with a trolley. They are not going to get two buses with a bag of potatoes. They are going to go to the supermarket on the bypass, and they are not coming back.”
That was Gwen Pritchard, who has run a greengrocer’s stall in the covered market for twenty-six years and chairs the traders’ association. She wants the council to offer a free hour for shoppers who park in the market’s own car park, or to exempt Saturday mornings entirely. Officers have said a Saturday exemption would cut income by about a sixth.
The council points to evidence from other cities that footfall in charged zones tends to dip briefly and then recover as people switch to buses and walking. Councillor Rhys Abernethy, cabinet member for transport, said the money raised would go directly into the kind of services that bring shoppers in. “Every bus we add is a bus full of people who can spend money in the old town without looking for a parking space,” he said. He has offered to meet traders before the vote and has hinted that a reduced rate for short Saturday visits could be added as an amendment.
Where the votes lie
The ruling group holds a narrow majority on the council, and at least three of its own members have expressed doubts in public. Opposition councillors are split: some support the principle but want a lower charge, while others say the zone should not go ahead without a referendum. If the vote passes, a statutory consultation of twelve weeks would follow, and the scheme would still need the approval of the regional transport authority.
The public gallery at City Hall holds 120 people. The council says it expects it to be full, and it will stream the meeting online from 6pm.
