Coventry City Council is being urged to trial free evening parking in the city centre for a year in an attempt to bring more people back into restaurants, bars, theatres and other businesses.
The proposal would see charges scrapped after 6pm at council-run parking locations during a 12-month trial, allowing the authority to measure whether cheaper parking actually increases footfall and spending in the city centre.
Conservative councillor Pratibha Reddy, who represents Wainbody, has called on the council to consider the idea as part of its next review of parking fees.
Coventry City Council has confirmed that its city centre parking charges will be looked at ahead of the 2026/27 budget.
The authority has not agreed to the free-parking trial, meaning drivers should not expect charges to disappear just yet.
But the proposal has reopened a debate Coventry has had for years.
Would getting rid of evening parking charges persuade more people to spend their nights in the city centre?
Or would it simply cost the council hundreds of thousands of pounds without noticeably changing where people choose to go?
The proposal is for a 12-month experiment
Reddy’s argument is relatively straightforward.
Remove the cost of parking in the evening and people may be more willing to come into Coventry for dinner, drinks, entertainment or events.
She believes free evening parking could increase visitor numbers, encourage people to stay for longer and provide a boost for businesses including restaurants and bars.
Importantly, the proposal is for a trial rather than an immediate permanent change.
That would potentially give the council a full year of data showing whether free evening parking makes any meaningful difference to the city centre economy.
For Coventry businesses, that could answer a question which is often debated but rarely tested properly.
Does a few pounds on a parking ticket really change where people spend their evening?
It might.
For someone deciding between a restaurant in Coventry city centre and somewhere at an out-of-town retail or leisure development with easy free parking, the additional cost and inconvenience of parking can become part of the calculation.
For others, it probably makes very little difference.
A year-long trial could provide some evidence either way.
Coventry currently charges throughout the evening
Parking policy in Coventry has changed significantly over the past few years.
Historically, the city operated cheaper evening rates at its car parks.
Council documents from the 2023/24 parking review show that Coventry previously had a daytime tariff between 8am and 6pm, followed by a cheaper evening rate.
The council proposed abandoning that system and applying normal daytime rates 24 hours a day.
The same report noted that Birmingham and Leicester were already operating similar arrangements.
Drivers using many Coventry city centre locations today are charged around the clock.
For example, the council’s current listings for streets including Bishop Street, New Union Street, Silver Street, Spon Street and Gosford Street state that charges apply 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
So free parking after 6pm would represent a genuine reversal of the direction Coventry has taken in recent years.
Evening charges have raised almost £600,000
There is an obvious reason the council may be reluctant to abandon the charges.
Money.
The introduction of standard evening parking tariffs was approved by the council’s Cabinet in November 2023.
By June this year, the council said those night-time charges had generated £596,044.
That is not an insignificant amount for a local authority facing constant pressure on budgets.
Any decision to introduce free evening parking would therefore have to consider what happens to that lost income.
The central argument from supporters of the trial would presumably be that increased activity in the city centre could produce wider economic benefits which outweigh some or all of that loss.
Restaurants might serve more customers.
Bars could see additional trade.
People visiting the Belgrade Theatre, restaurants around Cathedral Lanes or entertainment venues could decide to arrive earlier or stay later.
More visitors could also make the city centre feel busier in the evening, something which itself can influence whether people choose to spend time there.
But proving that free parking directly causes those benefits is much harder.
Coventry city centre is competing with free parking elsewhere
This is where the debate becomes bigger than parking charges.
Coventry city centre is competing for people’s time and money with retail parks, shopping centres and entertainment destinations across Coventry and Warwickshire.
And parking can be part of that competition.
When somebody can drive directly to an out-of-town location, park easily and potentially avoid paying anything for the privilege, a city centre trip can feel more complicated before the evening has even started.
That does not mean free parking would suddenly transform Coventry’s night-time economy.
People choose where to go based on restaurants, shops, entertainment, atmosphere, safety, convenience and plenty of other factors.
But parking is one of the relatively few parts of that experience the council can directly change.
There is also a transport argument against it
Coventry’s wider transport strategy has increasingly focused on reducing reliance on private cars.
The city has invested heavily in bus infrastructure, walking and cycling projects, while major schemes including the planned Coventry Very Light Rail network are intended to give residents alternatives to driving.
Encouraging more cars into the city centre by removing parking charges could therefore sit awkwardly alongside those objectives.
There are also questions about congestion and demand.
If evening parking became free, popular car parks could become busier.
People who currently travel by bus might decide to drive instead.
And some drivers who already visit Coventry in the evening would simply stop paying for something they were prepared to pay for anyway.
That is the risk for the council.
It could lose significant parking income while seeing relatively little additional economic activity in return.
Coventry has thousands of council-controlled spaces
The council operates a significant network of city centre parking.
Its latest published parking statistics list major sites including Salt Lane, Bishop Street, Gosford Street, Grove Street and Lower Ford Street.
Salt Lane alone has more than 600 spaces, while Grove Street provides 188 and Gosford Street 171.
The authority also manages around 400 on-street spaces in the city centre.
That means even a relatively limited change to evening charging could affect a substantial number of journeys.
It also gives the council enough parking capacity to potentially run a meaningful experiment.
The council is reviewing its charges
For now, nothing has been decided.
Coventry City Council has said it will consider parking fees and charges as part of work ahead of setting its 2026/27 budget.
That means the free-parking proposal will enter a much wider discussion about council finances, transport policy and the future of the city centre.
And there are reasonable arguments on both sides.
The council has already shown that evening parking can generate hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Giving that revenue up permanently without evidence of a wider benefit would be difficult to justify.
But that is also why the suggestion of a temporary trial is interesting.
Rather than Coventry spending another few years arguing about whether free evening parking would help the city centre, the council could test it.
Run it for 12 months.
Measure visitor numbers.
Speak to restaurants, bars, theatres and shops.
Compare spending and footfall with previous years.
Then Coventry would have something more useful than opinions to base the next decision on.
The question now is whether the council thinks finding out is worth potentially sacrificing a year’s worth of evening parking income.
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