Free parking in Newport? We asked the council, Friars Walk and Kingsway

Many people said that having free parking – even for just a few hours – would encourage shoppers to return to the city centre.

While others pointed to the success of free parking in Cwmbran Centre.

You can read all of our readers' suggestion for improving the high-street here.

We put the prospect of free parking to the local operators: the council, Kingsway and Friars Walk and this is what they said.

Newport City Council

A spokeswoman for the council said: “Free parking in its car parks would cost Newport City Council hundreds of thousands of pounds and would have to be funded either through savings in other services or through an increase in council tax.

“Parking in the Cwmbran Shopping centre is not comparable to the city centre of Newport.

“Cwmbran Shopping is a self-contained centre owned by a private company that is able to balance rental income from traders with this free offer.

“Newport City Council is a publicly funded body and does not “own” the city centre so it does not receive rental income from retailers. Business rates are set nationally and collected by the council on behalf of the Welsh Government.

“Parking in Newport is already cheaper than many other city centres.

“The council also has a duty to promote active travel and encourage people to walk or cycle rather than using their cars. Public transport is also an alternative to cars and the city centre has two bus stations as well as the railway station.”

Read more: The vintage store in Newport reflecting the city's history

Council car park prices:

• £2.50 for up to 3 hours.

• £4.50 for three-to-five hours.

• £6 for over five hours.

Prices may vary at other council-owned car parks.

There are some free car parking bays:

• Hollybush Avenue, Malpas (Unionist Club) - 20 spaces

• Coldbath Road, Caerleon - 25 car spaces, 8 coach spaces

Friars Walk

(Friars Walk charged £1 for up to an hour.)

Simon Pullen, centre director at Friars Walk, said: “At this moment in time Friars Walk has no plans to remove the charges it has in place for parking at the site.

“We have a limited number of spaces available in the shopping centre’s underground car park and when the mall originally opened in 2015, it offered one-hour free parking.

“However, we discovered that bays were being taken by visitors who were not using the mall and therefore using up valuable spaces for our customers. We have seen this decrease significantly since introducing a very modest charge.

“We will, however, continue to hold parking promotions for our customers at key points during the calendar year.

“Our free parking on Sundays during Christmas proved to be popular with our shoppers, and we will be planning something similar again later this year.”

Read more: This is why people love Newport

Friars Walk prices:

• £1.00 for up to one hour.

• £1.50 for one-to-two hours.

• £2.40 for two-to-three hours.

• £3.60 for three-to-four hours.

• £6.00 for four-to-six hours.

• £8.00 for six-to-ten hours.

• £15 for ten-to-24 hours.

• Evening tariff (6pm – 6am): £1.50.

The Kingsway Centre

(The Kingsway charges 50p for up to an hour. Picture: Charles Dawson)

A spokeswoman said: “Supporting tenants and ensuring our customers can easily access the Kingsway is our number one priority.

“We continually monitor our pricing to ensure it is affordable and in line with other areas of the city centre.”

Read more: How to fix Newport's high street problem

Kingsway prices:

• £0.50 for up to one hour.

• £1.00 for one-to-two hours.

• £2.00 for two-to-three hours.

• £3.00 for three-to-five hours.

• £5 for five-to-ten hours.

• £10 for ten-to-24 hours.

• Evenings after 6pm - £1.00.