Alnwick, Hexham and Morpeth Town Centre Parking Study
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WYG Transport Planning Northumberland County Council Alnwick, Hexham and Morpeth Town Centre Parking Study Study Report WYG A081175-92 Executive Park Avalon Way Anstey Leicester 8th December 2017 LE7 7GR Copyright © WYG EPT Ltd 2017 WYG Transport Planning REPORT CONTROL Document: Study Report Project: Parking Study Client: Northumberland County Council Job Number: A081175-92 File Origin: Document Checking: Primary Author Steve Boden Initialled: SB Contributor Andy Green Initialled: AG Review By Alistair Gregory Initialled: ASG Issue Date Status Checked for Issue 1 15/11/2017 Draft version 1 AG 2 8/12/2017 Draft version 2 ASG 3 13/12/2017 Final ASG WYG Transport Planning Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 2 Parking Study Context .................................................................................. 2 3 Alnwick Parking Strategy .............................................................................. 5 4 Hexham Parking Strategy ........................................................................... 35 5 Morpeth Parking Strategy ........................................................................... 67 6 Future Growth Forecasts ............................................................................ 97 7 Conclusion............................................................................................... 101 Table 1 – Parking Survey Dates .............................................................................................................. 3 Table 2 – Alnwick Town Centre Car Parks ................................................................................................ 6 Table 3 – Alnwick Highest Occupancy Day (Weds 16th August) ................................................................. 9 Table 4 – Alnwick On-Street (Weds 16th August) ...................................................................................... 9 Table 5 – Potential Parking Measures .................................................................................................... 19 Table 6 – Alnwick Parking Action Plan ................................................................................................... 33 Table 7 – Hexham Town Centre Parking ................................................................................................ 36 Table 8 – Hexham Highest Occupancy Day (Tues 22nd August) ............................................................... 39 Table 9 – Hexham On-Street (Tues 22nd August) .................................................................................... 40 Table 10 – Hexham Occupancy by Car Park Type (Tues 22nd August) .................................................... 40 Table 11 – Potential Parking Measures .................................................................................................. 50 Table 12 – Hexham Car Park Capacity Estimates .................................................................................... 53 Table 13 – Hexham Parking Action Plan ................................................................................................. 65 Table 14 – Morpeth Town Centre Parking .............................................................................................. 68 Table 15 – Morpeth Highest Occupancy Day (Thurs 21st September) ....................................................... 71 Table 16 – Morpeth On-Street (Thurs 21st September) ........................................................................... 72 Table 17 – Morpeth Car Parks (Thurs 21st September) ............................................................................ 72 Table 18 – Potential Parking Measures .................................................................................................. 81 Table 19 – Morpeth Car Park Capacity Estimates .................................................................................... 84 Table 20 – Morpeth Parking Action Plan ................................................................................................. 95 Table 21 – Potential Housing Developments .......................................................................................... 99 Table 22 – TEMPro Growth Forecasts .................................................................................................... 99 Table 23 – Car Park Ownership ........................................................................................................... 101 WYG Transport Planning Figure 1 – Northumberland Parking Study Towns ..................................................................................... 2 Figure 2 – Alnwick Study Area ................................................................................................................. 7 Figure 3 – Alnwick Available Spaces (Weds 16th August) ......................................................................... 10 Figure 4 – Alnwick Town Centre Available Spaces (Weds 16th August) ..................................................... 11 Figure 5 – Alnwick Issues and Objectives Summary ................................................................................ 18 Figure 6 – Hexham Study Area .............................................................................................................. 37 Figure 7 – Hexham Available Spaces (Tues 22nd August) ........................................................................ 41 Figure 8 – Hexham Central Area Available Public Spaces (Tues 22nd August)............................................ 42 Figure 9 – Hexham Issues and Objectives Summary ............................................................................... 49 Figure 10 – Morpeth Study Area ............................................................................................................ 69 Figure 11 – Morpeth Available Spaces (Thurs 21st September) ................................................................ 73 Figure 12 – Morpeth Issues and Objectives Summary ............................................................................. 80 Appendices Appendix A – Parking Data WYG Transport Planning 1 Introduction 1.1.1 WYG has been appointed by Northumberland County Council (NCC) to complete a study into the existing car park capacity and usage in the three town centres of Alnwick, Hexham and Morpeth and to produce a strategy for meeting future parking needs. Parking is a significant issue in the towns that is considered by some people to be a constraint on the growth of their economies and their sustainability. Free parking was introduced in 2014 but there is now a perceived lack of parking capacity that has several consequences. 1.1.2 Much of the parking in the town centres is provided in car parks managed by NCC, plus some significant private car parks and on-street parking. On-street parking is the responsibility of the highway authority (NCC) which carries out the enforcement of the on-street and off-street parking restrictions. 1.1.3 This report presents details of the existing town centre car park provision, usage and issues and goes on to forecast how this is likely to change in the future and what measures could be adopted to tackle existing and future parking issues. New data has been collected and consultation has been undertaken with local stakeholders in each town to gain an understanding of existing issues, future changes and potential solutions. 1.1.4 This report is structured as follows: • Section 2 – Parking Study Context and Evidence • Section 3 – Alnwick Parking Strategy • Section 4 – Hexham Parking Strategy • Section 5 – Morpeth Parking Strategy • Section 6 – Future Growth Forecasts • Section 7 – Conclusions and Action Plan 1 WYG Transport Planning 2 Parking Study Context 2.1.1 Parking concerns have been raised regularly with NCC by organisations and individuals in the three study towns and the Council decided to carry out a study to quantify the scale of the issues that exist and to make recommendations for the future. Representations have been made to NCC from the Town Councils, County Councillors, stakeholders and the public about parking in the town centres and some studies and data collection have been carried out in the past. This study uses new, comparable data and consultation to devise consistent strategies for the three towns. 2.1.2 This chapter provides some background context about the towns and a description of the data collection exercise that has been undertaken. Figure 1 shows the locations of the three towns within the County. They are largely self-contained market towns but with differing relationships with adjacent towns and attractions. Morpeth has closer links with Newcastle and longer distance locations because of the A1 and good railway service, Alnwick is a more remote location but well located on the A1 and has a greater reliance on tourism than the other towns while Hexham has less competition from neighbouring towns and better East-West links than North-South. Figure 1 – Northumberland Parking Study Towns 2 WYG Transport Planning 2.2 PARKING SURVEY SPECIFICATION 2.2.1 Parking surveys were carried out by a specialist supplier that carried out hourly beat surveys in each car park and on-street within the study area, where the registration numbers of vehicles were recorded in each parking space throughout each survey day (7am-7pm). This provides data on the duration of stay of each vehicle as well as arrival and departure times, occupancy levels and the