Witney News - More longer stay parking in Witney

More longer stay parking in Witney

West Oxfordshire District Council is extending the parking time limit of some spaces at Witney’s new Marriotts Walk multi-storey car park.

The Council has taken on board requests from people who want to stay longer in Witney and is changing the parking limit from 3 to 5 hours for 150 spaces - a quarter of the overall car park spaces available. They are on the car park’s two upper floors.

The remaining spaces will continue to have a three-hour parking limit and, as with all Council-owned car parks, parking at Marriotts remains free.

The changes will come into force on Friday 4th December and are applicable between 8am and 6pm. After 6pm there are no parking time restrictions, as has been the case since the car park opened at the end of October. The car park closes at 1am daily and re-opens again at 7am.

Since the opening of the new shopping parade and multi-storey, surveys have shown that ample free car parking has been available in Witney. Even at peak times on Saturdays, town centre car parks have only been up to 90% full.
Car parking across Witney will continue to be monitored over the coming months and the mix of long and short-stay usage reviewed.

Cllr David Harvey, Cabinet Member for Environment at West Oxfordshire District Council, said: “With its unique mix of independent and well-known high street stores, restaurants and a 5-screen cinema, Witney now has an excellent retail offer - it is good news that there is so much in the town for people to enjoy and that they want to stay longer.

“Free parking, all year round, continues to be a real draw too. Since we opened the new Marriotts Walk multi-storey car park there is a significant increase in the number of car parking spaces and they are meeting the increased demand from more people using the town centre. In the long term adjusting the balance of long and short stay spaces needs to be carefully considered which is why we are carrying out this review.”

The multi-storey car park at Marriotts Walk provides 590 parking spaces plus additional parking spaces for residents at the new development.

Compared to two years ago, before the construction of Marriotts, there are now almost 300 more parking spaces at car parks in the town.

In addition to this number, the 250-space temporary Woodford Way car park remains open until next year and its continued usage will be monitored as part of the car parking review.

In total, Witney has around 2,000 car parking spaces - almost 1,800 in car parks and 200 on-street spaces.

Out of the 2,000 parking spaces, long stay parking accounts for 23% of spaces in the town centre. More long-stay parking is available at the artificial turf pitch car park on Gordon Way and at Cogges Farm Museum car park. Currently only a small number of people use these car parks regularly, but both are a short 5 to 10 minute walk to and from the town centre.