By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter
Free parking at a Sutton-in-Ashfield beauty spot won’t be extended yet amid concerns about people using the car park to visit King’s Mill Hospital.
However, the parking fares will be revisited once new facilities – including an outdoor water sports hub and a restaurant – have been built on the land.
Ashfield District Council opted not to increase its free parking offer at King’s Mill Reservoir during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday (December 13).
The increased offer had initially been put forward in a bid to encourage more people to use the site.
The first hour of parking is free and customers are then asked to pay £1 for two hours of parking.
Fees then increase by £1 for an extra two hours up to a maximum of £6 for 12 hours in the 71-space car park.
A review of district-wide parking had planned to increase the free parking offer by one hour, before councillors raised concerns about costs.
But councillors were told the car park currently brings in slightly more than £9,000 per year, which is about 42 per cent of what was expected when fees were introduced.
The meeting heard the average visit time at the reservoir is 58 minutes, meaning most people only stay on the site for the duration of free parking.
And concerns were raised about potential budget losses if this free window period was to rise.
Councillor Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind) is the leader of the council.
In the meeting, he said: “It probably would have a detrimental impact on that £9,000 coming in.
“It’s a sinking fund and my gut feeling is that it shouldn’t be two hours now to make sure the council doesn’t effectively lose income.”
However, he said the fees could be revisited when the new sports facilities have been created on-site.
The authority will receive cash through the £62.6m Towns Fund pot to create the new water sports centre and a new 80-seat restaurant on the land.
A full planning application was lodged earlier this year with the two-storey building expected to be approved by councillors in the new year.
“There will be no changes now but we can revisit this for a potential review when the Towns Fund regeneration work is built,” Cllr Zadrozny added.
It’s as concerns were raised about the potential two-hour free parking offer encouraging more people to use it for visiting King’s Mill Hospital.
Councillor Matt Relf (Ash Ind), cabinet member for regeneration, said this use of the car park was one of the reasons parking fares were first brought in.
“I’m all for encouraging the use of King’s Mill Reservoir and the new facilities there,” he said.
“But I’m conscious one of the reasons we implemented the parking charges was because of people using it to park and visit King’s Mill Hospital.
“Moving it to two hours would open that back up again and I think it’s right to keep it at one hour.
“It’s also right that, if you’re wanting to walk your dog, an hour is perfectly fine – but if you’re wanting to stay longer and do activities, you are then going to be using disposable income to pay for that.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have parking charges as part of that package.”
However, he did suggest “incentivising” parking by giving customers discounts or vouchers to use in the new facilities once they have opened.
Cabinet members will revisit the reservoir parking fares in July next year, the meeting heard.
It’s as Nottinghamshire County Council confirmed parking restrictions will be enforced around nearby Millersdale Avenue, Featherstone Close and Randol Close.
Double yellow lines will be painted at their junctions with King’s Mill Lane following complaints from residents about obstructive parking.
Restricted parking bays will allow visitors to access the reservoir for two hours, with restrictions in place between 8am and 6pm Monday to Sunday.
