A £15 million car park in Stoke-on-Trent is costing taxpayers more than £15,000 a year – because not enough people are using it.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council opened the Smithfield multi-storey car park (MSCP) in Hanley in 2022, but new figures released by the authority show that it still failing to turn a profit.

In 2023/24, the council spent £172,561 on running Smithfield MSCP, but it only generated £156,856 in income – resulting in an overall loss of £15,794 for the year. Last month the council reduced charges at the car park 'to promote greater ad hoc use of the facility', in the belief that the previous charges were acting as a 'deterrent'.

The figures are included in a new report, following an internal review into the council's parking services. The report identifies eight loss-making car parks owned by the council, with Smithfield MSCP seeing the second biggest deficit in 2023/24.

Following the changes, it now costs £1.50 to park for one hour at Smithfield MSCP, down from £1.90 before, and £3 for two hours, down from £3.20 previously.

Parking charges have been reduced at Smithfield MSCP but the facility is still not making a profit (Google).

The report states: "The tariff at Smithfield Multi Storey Car Park was considered a deterrent to potential customers of this great facility despite customers who are using the facility being impressed with the quality and wider spaces. A delegated decision has actioned to reduce the tariffs to increase usage and income. These new tariffs were effective from 2 July."

Lower Huntbach Street in Hanley had by far the biggest loss over the year – a whopping £71,025. The council closed the car park and terminated the lease for the land in July.

Upper Huntbach Street car park, which had a £15,500 deficit in 2023/24, is being kept under review, as are Farndale Street and Butterfield Place car parks in Tunstall.

City Road in Fenton and Spark Street in Stoke made losses of £8,800 and £1,688 respectively, but both are being retained. The car park at St Ann Street, in Hanley, has been earmarked for redevelopment, but will be retained in the meantime.

Smithfield MSCP was built and opened under the council's previous Conservative administration, with the then Labour opposition criticising the decision.

Councillor Dan Jellyman, leader of the Tory group, said: "The car park was never going to make a profit in year one – no business ever does make a profit in its first year. The profitability was always going to come in later years. The Labour administration are just saying that it's making a loss to score a cheap political point.

"They've now lowered the tariffs, and that's their choice to make, but what they really should be doing to increase use of the car park is to press on with the Home Office building – we've not even had an application come to the planning committee yet."

Councillor Dan Jellyman says the profitability will come in later years (Image supplied).

At the time the review was carried out, the council operated 27 car parks across the city, providing a total of 3,256 spaces – with 1,945 of these in Hanley.

In addition to looking at the financial sustainability of car parks, the review also considered the impact of the policy of offering 30 minutes of free parking on one car park in each town other than Hanley, which was introduced in 2020.

According to the council's calculations, this offer is saving motorists £228,114 a year – the equivalent of 112,384 'free tickets' being issued across the six car parks.

As a result of the review, the council moved the free parking in Longton from Longton Exchange to Chancery Lane in June. A decision has also been taken to move the free parking offer in Burslem from Chapel Lane car park to on-street parking locations in the town centre.

The poor level of parking provision in Burslem is one of the findings of the review. Chapel Lane, with 61 spaces, is the only council-owned car park in the Mother Town.

The report states: "It is recognised that the saturation and distribution of parking provision in Burslem currently does not serve the town well. The possibility for additional car parking to be created in the town is under construction, with other travel and transport options to be explored to give any new undertaking the best chance of success."

The council is also planning to revamp temporary parking for major events 'to encourage visitors and reduce inconsiderate parking', and launch a marketing campaign to promote new tariffs and other recent changes.

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