We are urging everyone who lives, works, shops or spends time in Shrewsbury to respond to Shropshire Council’s consultation on parking charges, as we publish our full report showing evidence of the economic damage since the November 2025 increases in the town centre.

The consultation, which relates to further proposed rises to many town centre charges along with new evening and Sunday charging, closes on Thursday 26 November.

Our report draws on Shropshire Council’s own car park transaction data, footfall and sales data collected by Shrewsbury BID through Springboard and Beauclair, alongside a survey of town centre businesses carried out in September. Comparing November to May with the same period a year earlier, the number of hours parked in the town’s council car parks fell by 9.7%, around 126,600 fewer hours, while the number of transactions fell by 2.3%.

People are still coming to Shrewsbury, but they are staying for less time: one-hour stays are up, while three- and five-hour stays have fallen. At Frankwell Main, where the hourly tariff rose by 50%, hours purchased fell by an average of 21% year on year between March and May.

Shrewsbury’s town centre sales tracked above the national trend for most of 2025, but have fallen year on year in eight of the eleven months since the November 2025 increase to parking charges, and have performed below the national trend every month since March. Town centre spend is down 5.8% so far this year, more than twice the national fall, even though footfall is up on last year. If the fall continues, around £7.9m less would be spent in the town centre over a year.

Businesses report the same pattern. Of those surveyed, 82% say visitors now stay for less time, and a majority report lower footfall and spend, with only one business reporting an increase in either.

At least eight in ten rated the impact of parking costs on their customers and staff as significant, and rate Shrewsbury’s parking as less competitive than other regional centres and nearby market towns.

Under the proposals now out to consultation, charges at Band 2 car parks such as Bridge Street would rise from £2.80 to £3.80 an hour, Band 3 car parks such as St Julian’s Friars from £1.40 to £2.00, and on-street parking in Shrewsbury from £3.60 to £4.80.

Charging hours in Bands 1 to 4 would extend from 6pm to 8pm, the half-rate Sunday tariff in Band 2 would be removed, and Band 4 car parks, including Frankwell, would be charged on Sundays and bank holidays for the first time. More than nine in ten businesses surveyed expect Sunday and evening charging to have a negative impact.

The BID welcomes the proposed reduction at Frankwell from £1.20 to £1 an hour, and the introduction of a Sunday and evening Park & Ride service. However, a full-time worker parking at Frankwell would still pay £8 a day, 25% more than before November 2025.

At Abbey Foregate, which is proposed to increase from 70p to £1 an hour, the same worker paying daily would pay £40 a week, up from £24 before November 2025 – £736 more a year, and almost 8% of gross weekly earnings for a full-time employee on the National Living Wage.

Both Abbey Foregate and Frankwell’s car parks sit outside the river loop. Shrewsbury’s Movement Strategy, adopted by Shropshire Council in 2024 with cross-party support, says parking outside the loop should be encouraged through restructured pricing, to reduce traffic in the town centre. A 43% increase at Abbey Foregate, steeper than at Band 2 car parks or Raven Meadows inside the loop, runs directly against that principle. The price increases are also pushing more drivers to park on residential streets, worsening an existing problem in neighbouring areas such as Castlefields, Belle Vue, Cherry Orchard and Frankwell.

Shrewsbury BID is also questioning the council’s own use of Frankwell. Figures from a Freedom of Information response show council staff have parked free of charge at Frankwell Main since January 2025, with a median stay of more than nine hours.

Since the November 2025 tariff rise, staff vehicles parking free of charge have taken a third of the car park’s 650 spaces on an average weekday, peaking at more than half on one day. At the public tariff, that parking is worth around £40,000 a month.

With 55% of surveyed businesses saying car park capacity is insufficient, it would seem inconsistent to argue that charges are needed to move long-stay drivers towards alternative modes of transport, while the council’s own staff are incentivised to drive to work and park all day for free.

Shrewsbury BID is asking Shropshire Council to:

• Limit any near-term increase to a maximum of 20%, as the evidence shows larger rises are damaging the town centre’s economy
• Introduce maximum charges that reward longer visits, starting with a pilot cutting the eight-hour cap to five hours at Abbey Foregate, Frankwell and Raven Meadows. Below that cap, charges rise hour by hour with no incentive to stay longer, and under the proposals Bands 1 to 3 would still have no daily maximum: eight hours at Raven Meadows costs £19.20 (£20 under the proposals), compared with £10.50 at a competitor city centre modern multi-storey car park with banded charges
• Publish a clear timetable for the introduction of pay on exit, or a check-in/check-out system, at Frankwell and Abbey Foregate to incentivise dwell time; a trial was agreed by Shropshire Council in 2017
• Commit to more car park capacity and associated flood resilience within two years, and address the impact of free council staff parking at Frankwell

Seb Slater, Executive Director of Shrewsbury BID, said: “The council’s own parking data tells a clear story. People still want to come to Shrewsbury – footfall is holding up while it falls nationally – but they are staying for less time and spending less. That points to a local cause, and it is one that can be fixed.

“We welcome the reduction proposed at Frankwell and the return of Sunday buses, but eyewatering rises proposed in the town centre, new evening and Sunday charges and a 43% increase at Abbey Foregate risks significantly damaging the town centre economy and it is the last thing that businesses need right now.

“Parking charges out of step with rival centres make Shrewsbury less competitive, and that risks deterring the new investment the town centre needs. Businesses deciding where to open or expand look closely at how easy and affordable it is for customers and staff to get here. People coming to the town by town are being asked to pay more and more, yet in the last ten years there has been no meaningful improvement in parking facilities or capacity in the town.

“The council has said it will consider every response before any changes are made. We would urge everyone who lives, works, shops or spends time in Shrewsbury to read the proposals and respond to the consultation before 26 November.”

Stacey Hill, owner of three Oberon shops on Wyle Cop, commented, “With the price of petrol so high, the last thing drivers want is a large parking charge on top, and it will really put people off coming into town. As a town we’re luckier than some, but it won’t take much to change that.

“People are always dashing back to their cars when really they’d like to be spending more time and money in town. Rather than a parking rise, why can’t we go for one hour of free parking to encourage shoppers? If we don’t get the footfall, shops will close.”

Kev Rippard, co-owner of the Salopian and the Market Hall Tavern and chair of Shrewsbury Pubwatch, stated, “For anyone working in the town centre, or planning to stay for any length of time, it’s now often cheaper to get a taxi to and from town than to park. That can’t be right.

“When parking costs more than a taxi, people either cut their visit short or don’t come at all, and the staff who keep our businesses running are left footing the bill just to get to work. The town needs a parking offer that encourages people to stay longer, not one that pushes them away.”

The consultation runs until Thursday 26 November 2026 and can be completed online here. Shrewsbury BID’s full report is available here: https://shrewsburybid.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Shrewsbury-Parking-Report-Shrewsbury-BID.pdf

Shropshire Council’s Consultation can be completed here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TrafficManagementandParkingCharges

If you would prefer to send a written response directly to Shropshire Council, please email [email protected].