Edinburgh parking charges: Price to park in Edinburgh to increase by 20 per cent

Edinburgh’s finance committee backs big rise in cost of parking

Parking charges in Edinburgh are set to increase by 20 per cent from next week.

The cost of leaving a car in some city-centre streets will jump by as much as £1.10 per hour. And the money raised will be used to freeze some costs to residents, including those for adult burial charges and day care for the elderly and disabled. SNP and Green councillors – who proposed the 20 per cent increase against a 16 per cent rise tabled by the minority Labour administration – said the move would help to “alleviate the impact of poverty and reflect the true cost of driving in our city”.

However the city’s transport leader warned that the rise may not actually raise as much income as predicted – as it could deter people from parking in the city – and admitted Edinburgh was “hooked” on parking incoming. The changes to parking charges will take effect from Monday April 3 after they were approved by the council’s finance committee on Thusday.

Parking charges in some city-centre streets will go up by £1.10 per hour. Picture: Lisa Ferguson.

The cost of parking in the city centre – George Street, St Andrew Square, Charlotte Square, Queen Street, Market Street, Cockburn Street – will be lifted from £5.60 per hour to £6.70. In the Stafford Street and Melville Street area, Morrison Street to Shandwick Place and the Old Town, including East Market Street, the rate will increase from £4.90 to £5.90.

In the West End (Palmerston Place area), Moray Place, South Side/Nicholson Street, Tollcross/Fountainbridge and Heriot Row, hourly parking fees rise from £4.10 to £4.90. And in the New Town – Northumberland Street to St Stephen Street and Royal Crescent – motorists will have to pay a new rate of £4.40 an hour, up from £3.70.

South Queensferry will also have charges hiked by 20 per cent, jumping from £0.90 to £1.10. Meanwhile in Bruntsfield, Sciennes, St Leonard’s, Dumbiedykes, Stockbridge and Dean, on-street parking charges will go up from £3.10 to £3.40 – a lower increase of 9.68 per cent. And the cost of parking permits for residents will increase by between 11 and 15 per cent.