[3.22.01] We want fewer visitors arriving to and moving around the Lake District by private vehicle. We want people to park their vehicle for the day and use sustainable travel opportunities if they arrive in a private vehicle, to reduce visitor movement pressures and pollution.
We will only support additional public parking provision that helps to reduce the need to travel by private motor vehicle, and contributes to and improves sustainable transport and movement opportunities.
We will achieve this by permitting:
Exceptionally, public car parking proposals in locations other than those set out in 1 and 2 will only be permitted where it is demonstrated that proposals would:
[3.22.06] This Policy only applies to the provision of new public parking, including extensions to existing. It does not apply to new development proposals which will require specific standards of parking provision, such are residential developments, employment sites, retail, tourism attractions, or hotels and guest accommodation. It also does not apply to extensions to customer only parking or staff parking. Policy 08: Infrastructure and developer contributions, and The Cumbria Development Design Guide will be used to inform required parking standards.
[3.22.07] Public car parking may be permanent or temporary. All proposals, whether permanent or temporary will be expected to meet the criteria identified in this policy, however temporary proposals may be considered more favourably if it would result in less landscape and environmental harm. A Travel Plan will be required for additional parking proposals to demonstrate how the development will transfer people to sustainable transport and travel opportunities.
[3.22.08] Visitor Movement Maps (Figures 11–14) identify settlements that are Transport Interchanges, Gateways, and Rural Service Centres which function as multi-purpose hubs. These settlements are: Ambleside, Bowness on Windermere, Broughton in Furness, Caldbeck, Coniston, Glenridding, Gosforth, Grasmere, Greenodd, Hawkshead, Keswick, Newby Bridge, Pooley Bridge, Ravenglass, Staveley, and Windermere.
[3.22.10] Evidence of need for additional public parking may include, but not be limited to:
[3.22.11] Each parking application will have different opportunities and local circumstances, including existing transport. Linking cycle and walking route potential, and user benefits will be taken into account. We will require applicants to implement measures to support the modal shift from cars to other forms of sustainable travel. These may include:
[3.22.02] The provision of car parking is a controversial and critical issue in the Lake District. It is unsurprising that the demand for car parking is concentrated to times when visitor demand to come to the Lake District is at its highest – school holidays, weekends, bank holidays, and this is even more prevalent when the weather is good as more day visitors are attracted. There are many different types of car parking in the Lake District including on-street parking, off-street public parking in car parks, customer parking at visitor attractions, visitor accommodation parking, residential private parking, businesses customer and staff parking, and parking at retail units for customers and staff.
[3.22.03] We seek to reduce the need to travel by private vehicle to support climate change initiatives like the ‘Low Carbon Lake District’ project and address visitor pressure at peak times. We recognise opportunities are limited by the availability of public transport services, and by people’s behavioural habits. In the short to medium term we therefore recognise that the majority of people will continue to arrive by private vehicle. There is a strong case that we need to provide car parking as part of sustainable transport measures given the number of people arriving to the Lake District by private motor vehicle. The transition from car to sustainable transport needs to be easy and convenient, and the offer for sustainable transport has to be attractive to the user. Parking is also required to support the local economy — particularly in town centres/ retail areas.
[3.22.04] Coach travel is a sustainable form of transport (based on carbon emissions per passenger) and is a significant part of the overseas visitor market. It is therefore important that there is coach parking available to enable and encourage this form of travel. There are currently 14 sites that provide coach parking and they provide 98 spaces, and there is a lack of coach parking in some locations.
[3.22.05] There are many public car parks spread throughout the Lake District providing in the region of 7,300 public car parking spaces. However, we estimate that there could be at least 8,000 ‘on-street’ spaces either in disc zones, in settlements and in other rural areas. There is also a considerable number of customer parking spaces associated with businesses including shops, visitor attractions or accommodation. On a single day in the school holidays there might be 75,000–100,000 visitors in the Lake District (82 per cent of whom may be day visitors and it is estimated 83 per cent of visitors arrive by private motor vehicle). Therefore there could be in the region of 17,000–22,000 visitors’ vehicles (if travelling as a family in a single car) moving around the Lake District. It is inevitable that demand for parking can exceed supply at peak times. Fly-parking is an issue such as at peak times and/or because of parking charges and this can affect landscape, safety and access for residents. Temporary parking which can provide additional capacity for up to 28 days often is not considered to be long enough to cover the peak season.
Figure 11: Visitor Movement Map: Western Lake District
Figure 12: Visitor Movement Map: Northern Lake District
Figure 13: Visitor Movement Map: Eastern Lake District
Figure 14: Visitor Movement Map: Central and Southern Lake District
