The number of people who took advantage of City of York Council’s free parking incentives has been revealed.
Data for the week of August 5 to 11 shows that just 2.4 per cent of parking transactions took advantage of the council’s free parking offer using the Ringo parking app.
That week 24,344 people paid to use council car parks but only 596 used the Ringo free parking offer, which had been criticised by retailers and Cllr Claire Douglas for being “hard to understand”.
People were able to get two free hours parking in July and one hour in August after 10am at some council car parks if they used the Ringo Parking App.
According to a report, 26 per cent of parking transactions in July used the app – with 6 per cent using it for free parking.
But the council says the promotion significantly increased the number of people using the Ringo app to pay for parking in York compared to last year.
The council’s parking income is also “considerably below” target levels for the first quarter of the year. The local authority hoped to make more than £1.7m from parking in the first quarter – but made £236,488.
It also hoped to bring in about £155,212 in fines in that time – but instead received £32,793.
Parking is a large source of income for the council.