York must learn to live with fewer car parking spaces, the city council’s transport executive has told opposition councillors.

Cllr Pete Kilbane, the City of York Council’s transport and economy executive, responded to concerns about plans to reduce car parking spaces in York at a scrutiny committee meeting on Monday, December 4.

Liberal Democrat and Green Party plans for a £15 million multi-storey car park first submitted four years ago were scrapped by the new Labour administration in November 2023, just six months after being elected.

The Labour council’s executive also confirmed that the Castle car park in Tower Street would be repurposed subject to a new business case being brought to its members.

The Conservatives, alongside independent Cllr Mark Warters, and the Liberal Democrats argued that good decision-making was not followed over the issue, alleging a breach of the council’s constitution.

Meanwhile, Chris Bush, business manager at York BID, told the scrutiny committee: “The BID directors understand the need for green ambitions but car parking remains an important subject to many city-centre businesses.

“This is seen as a major factor in how York competes against out-of-town shopping centres and other external retail offerings.

“If the city council is to remove the most popular car park in the city centre, businesses must have evidence that this will not reduce footfall and spending.”

Cllr Kilbane, who is also the council’s deputy leader, said: “We’ve been talking a lot to business about this.

“Most of us are on the same page that what matters to business is footfall, not how people get there.”

York Press: Cllr Pete KilbaneCllr Pete Kilbane

He added that making the Castle car park more attractive would be more beneficial than having more car parking spaces, using the Christmas Market as an example.

“The reduction in parking will happen if we’re successful with our transport plan to reduce driven miles by 20 per cent,” Cllr Kilbane said.

“You can’t reduce the amount of miles driven without reducing the amount of cars.

“We will face a reduction in parking and as a council, we need to learn how to deal with that and how to cope with that.”

Opposition councillors are also concerned about the financial aspect of the plans.

Cllr Nigel Ayre, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, claimed that the loss of parking from the Castle car park would cost £1.6 million a year.

While finance executive Cllr Katie Lomas acknowledged that figure, she said: “We would only lose £1 million of that because we estimate that £600,000 would be displaced at our other car parking sites which are largely underused for the majority of the year.”

On the £15m multi-storey car park, Cllr Lomas added: “The revenue costs for the borrowing year-on-year for that are £1.1 million for 40 years.

York Press: Cllr Katie LomasCllr Katie Lomas

“Building that multi-storey car park would commit this council to pay £1.1 million from revenue every year for the next 40 years.”

Cllr Lomas insisted “the council’s revenue budget will be better off by doing this".

Seven Labour councillors voted that there was no breach to the council's constitution in the decisions taken, while five Liberal Democrats voted there was.