Tram works and car wardens driving away Edinburgh's shoppers

Published on Saturday 27 February 2010 11:09

THE triple whammy of tram works, the recession and over-zealous parking attendants has been blamed for new figures showing thousands of shoppers giving the city centre a wide berth.

Figures released by the city council showed that average footfall had declined by almost 8 per cent in 2009, compared to the previous year, with the uptake of on-street parking also on the slide.

The proportion of on-street parking spaces being used fell so that just over a third were in constant use during times when charges apply. However, the city's off-street car parks and park-and-ride sites fared better, leading to suggestions that motorists were changing their habits to avoid pay-and-display bays.

The average decline in footfall in similar UK cities, including Glasgow, London and Manchester, was 5.5 per cent for the year. However, the council argued that Edinburgh had "held up well", given that Princes Street – the Capital's busiest thoroughfare – had been closed to traffic for much of the year.

• Poll: Is the city centre still attractive as a shopping destination?

Graham Birse, deputy chief executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said the drop in on-street parking had as much to do with the image of the city's parking attendants as the economic slowdown.

Asked if he thought businesses had lost out due to the reputation of the city's enforcers, he said: "I know we have in the past. I don't know if that view of them is still as accurate, but the city still suffers from their reputation."

On the footfall and parking figures, he added: "A number of factors are at work – the recession, the tram construction and the vigilance of policing on-street parking. We need to work much harder to emphasise the outstanding quality of the city centre experience. We need to work a bit harder to get that message out there."

But David Legge, a spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, said it would come as a surprise to drivers that there were so many empty spaces in the city centre.

He said: "This would suggest there are lots of empty spaces on the periphery of the city centre, which points to the fact that the council may have over-extended the number.

"If there's evidence that there is parking spaces in outlying areas that are lying empty, then there's an argument for getting rid of charging altogether there."

Gordon Mackenzie, the city's transport convener, said: "It's encouraging that patronage at our circle of park-and-rides continues to grow, particularly at the newer sites, and also that drivers are making more use of the wealth of off-street parking."