£3 million saving on Westminster car parks

Westminster council will lease

out a portfolio of car parks to a private operator saving taxpayers more

than £3 million a year, the authority announced recently.

 

From today, 14 of the council's car parks, which provide

approximately 4,200 car parking spaces and 900 motorcycles bays across

central London, will be leased to and operated by Q-Park Ltd.

 

The

new operator will also carry out £10 million improvement works across

the sites which include locations at Oxford Street, Park Lane,

Knightsbridge, China Town and St John’s Wood.

 

The council said

that arrangements for existing resident parking permits would remain for

the duration of the leases. The current arrangements for existing

electric vehicle parking and free motorcycle parking would also be

retained.

The move follows the leasing of Chiltern Street and Leicester Square car parks last year.

 

Cllr

Melvyn Caplan, Westminster Council’s cabinet member for Finance, said

savings would be made through reduced staff, operating, maintenance and

repair costs.

 

Cllr Caplan said: "Given the current economic

climate it's vital that as a council we look at all the resources

available to us to help provide savings for the taxpayer and in turn

protect key services for residents across Westminster.

 

"The

leasing of our car parks is one way of improving parking services and

securing vital improvement works while ensuring we are getting the best

value for money possible for our residents, businesses and motorists"

 

Q-Park

is one of the leading providers of parking facilities across Europe and

currently operates over 800,000 parking spaces in the UK, Netherlands,

Germany, Belgium, France , Ireland, Denmark Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Adam

Bidder, Managing Director of Q-Park Great Britain: "We are delighted to

have been chosen to work in partnership with Westminster City Council.

We look forward to completing the process and investing in the car parks

to the benefit of our customers.

“We believe this provides a

framework for other local authorities to provide quality parking

facilities which we hope to build on for the future"

The 25 year lease will see Q-Park Ltd replace the current contractor APCOA.