Parking charges are a bugbear for motorists.

Today’s drivers don’t have to rely on towns and cities to do their shopping. Out-of-town shopping complexes have the shops and often free parking – so how can independent traders in towns and cities compete?

According to a survey by the car insurance company confused.com, Britons are now spending nearly £8 billion a year to park their cars.

Parking prices rose 12.5 per cent last year, with high charges deterring shoppers from visiting town centres. Unsurprisingly, Knightsbridge in central London is the most expensive, with motorists being charged up to £36 for three hours.

The survey of 2,000 people found 69 per cent intentionally avoided shopping areas with high parking prices.

As many as 65 per cent said they would return to the high street if parking was more affordable, while 21 per cent suggest current parking services do not offer enough space.

Gareth Kloet, head of car insurance at confused-com, says: “In today’s difficult financial climate, people have to find ways to save every penny possible.

“Over-priced parking charges are a problem that every motorist in the country has to deal with.”

If you are looking for a bargain, which most of us are in this financial climate, it seems Bradford’s parking charges are among the cheapest in the country.

However, the city, like many others in the country, is having to compete for trade with out-of-town shopping centres.

Val Summerscales, secretary of Bradford Chamber of Trade, says as part of the recent parking charge review the Chamber suggested free parking be offered to motorists for the first hour as an incentive to encourage shoppers into the city centre. This wasn’t implemented.

David Oxtoby, of a fifth generation of clock and watch repairers in Northgate, says a friend who runs a business in Brighouse noticed an increase in footfall when the town introduced free parking some time ago.

He suggests offering free parking to shoppers on Saturdays would encourage more people to come into Bradford.

Chris Bexon, proprietor of Table Decor in North Parade, whose business has been in the city since the Sixties, says he has two viewpoints – as a customer and as a trader.

He appreciates how some motorists may be deterred from paying to park if it is expensive, but if it is reasonable, as a customer, he says he will pay to park to shop.

Chris says since parking charges were introduced on the street outside his business it hasn’t deterred his customers because they get sufficient time to do their shopping and have lunch in the city.

But Chris agrees the battle is with the out-of-town shopping complexes. “That is an alternative incentive for people to go and spend all day there and have free parking, and that is killing town centres,” says Chris, who believes it should be a level playing field.

Paul Ratcliffe, Bradford Council’s parking services co-ordinator, says: “I think it is important that we don’t do anything to discourage people from coming into Bradford, but my opinion is that when people decide to go they look at what they are going to visit; the second factor is the availability of parking and the third factor is the cost of parking.

“What we can say with some certainty of ours being one of the cheapest parking charges are they are not in themselves a primary deterrent.”

When asked why free one-hour parking wasn’t implemented, as suggested by the Chamber of Trade, Mr Ratcliffe explained that having looked at the occupancy at peak times in the city centre, it was already very high. “Because it was already high what would be the benefit of introducing a free area? You cannot get any more customers to park there because it is full,” explains Mr Ratcliffe.

But he adds that they are monitoring the parking situation. “We will be looking at usage on all the areas and how best to utilise our existing parking stock.”