Nottingham City Council, working with Community Protection, is relaxing on street parking charges and restrictions in the city centre to support the response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
All charges for on street parking in the city centre will be suspended and enforcement relaxed to allow those who absolutely need to travel into the city, especially those identified as key workers, to do so safely and to reduce the need to use scaled-down public transport services. Charges for multi-storey and surface car parks will remain in place.
Community Protection Officers will still have a presence in the city centre to ensure junctions are not blocked and that traffic flows, and urge those visiting the city centre continue to park considerately near work, and where picking up prescriptions from pharmacies and essential items such as groceries.
Nottingham City Council is leading the way with the relaxation of restrictions, recognising the need to support key workers as they work hard to keep essential services in the city running in difficult circumstances.
Councillor Adele Williams, Portfolio Holder for Local Transport, said: “Relaxing parking restrictions in the city centre will allow those key workers who have adapted so fantastically to the ever changing pandemic situation to carry out their essential work with one less thing to worry about. Public transport providers are doing their best to keep people safe but have inevitably reduced their services as demand drops, and alternatives like this are essential to keeping key services running.
“We recognise that even with the diligent steps taken, social distancing is still difficult on public transport and lifting these restrictions will allow people to travel safely and without an escalated risk to the rest of the public.
“However, I cannot stress enough that national guidance at the moment is that people only travel when absolutely necessary and observe all social distancing and hygiene recommendations from Public Health England and would urge people to think about whether they absolutely need to travel into the city. We must stick to the Public Health England guidelines to protect our NHS and those who work in it. The safety of each one of us relies on us all adhering to those restrictions.”