North motorists could face charges at over 100 Highland Council car parks that were previously free to use, it has emerged.
Council figures show that more than 90% of its 224 off-street car parks across the region are currently free to use, with just 17 charging.
While no official decision has been made, the council’s continuing quest to balance the books has led to car parks containing more than 20 spaces being considered as part of the budget review.
This would mean pay and display machines could be introduced at 118 – or 57% – of the existing 207 free car parks, in line with the council’s current car park capacity figures.
Drivers in bigger towns such as Nairn, Dingwall, Alness and Wick would likely feel the brunt of more charges but motorists in smaller communities such as Ullapool or Lairg could also be affected.
Councillor Allan Henderson, chairman of the Community Services Committee, said: “It has to become a more commercially-run organisation and it’s pretty obvious that this will be part of it.
“Before any blanket charges are made there will be a review of it. There is a size where it will become uneconomical to charge but we do need to look at it. Unfortunately, we will have to look at some form of charge.
“There is a complete council redesign and that involves groups of people looking at particular services we deliver, so it will be coming up. It will be something that will be on the table.
“The decision might be that they are not changing anything but it will all be part of the review and we will look at the costs of installing charging machines. It might be that councillors find it unpalatable.”
Opinion is divided on the issue but councillors representing smaller communities say the cost of implementing and managing parking meters there would be too high.
Tain and Easter Ross councillor Alasdair Rhind said: “It would be detrimental to small communities and it would make those areas more fragile.
“We have got to look at what we do to take in money, but putting car parking charges across the Highlands would be a loss to revenue.
“I would love to think the facilities that Inverness have in their city went into our small towns and communities, and car parking charges is also a traffic management issue there.”
Wick councillor Neil MacDonald said that the state of the car parks in Caithness “could do with improvement” before any charges are brought in.
He added: “I would think this could hamper us. We are in an area where people rely on their own transport. There are a lot of people who use the car parks but with a charge brought in, I am not sure how that might deter them. They may end up flouting it by not paying for tickets and may take up parking in the streets and this would cause a lot of headaches.
“We are working to encourage people to use car parks as it is, and the new council traffic order will be coming into force in the next few months regarding illegal parking on the street.”
Meanwhile, councillors in Inverness generally took a different view.
Inverness Central councillor Donnie Kerr said: “People in the country think they should get free parking and that we in the city should subsidise them. Why should we subsidise the rest of the Highlands?
“It’s grossly unfair and charging at all council car parks is something we should have done a long time ago, both in rural and urban areas.”
Inverness South councillor Jim Crawford said he was “surprised” that the opportunity to roll out charging had been overlooked, adding: “We are having the budget report coming in March but it will be coming back to us (full council) in January beforehand, and this issue should be looked at before then.”
However, Inverness South councillor Ken Gowans said that it was important that a “balance is struck” to ensure the cost of installing and managing parking meters at smaller car parks is recouped.
