The city council is to bring the plans forward later this year
Hope Street in Liverpool city centre(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Parking restrictions are to be further relaxed around one of Liverpool’s cultural hotspots after discussions with businesses and residents. It was confirmed in May that the Liverpool City Council would finally move forward with controversial plans to extend parking charges until 11pm.
Despite almost 90% of respondents indicating they were against the move, councillors pressed ahead with the change, arguing it would standardise parking across the city centre. Last month, some business owners told the ECHO that Christmas would be a vital period for Hope Street amid a change to their scheme which has seen the amount of time people can pay to park in the area extended from an original two hours to four.
Now, the ECHO can reveal how the city council’s cabinet have agreed to extend the allowance of time people can pay for to five hours. It is understood officials will deliver a report this month setting out the particulars.
Parking changes went live in June 2025, meaning drivers were no longer able to leave their cars on city streets for free after 6pm.
The move followed a review of the CPZ around the city centre back in 2018. An initial informal public consultation was held in February 2022 after which proposals were revised and a statutory consultation undertaken between July and August 2023.
The existing two hour maximum stay limit for pay and display bays on roads within the Hope Street area, was extended to four hours. This includes Hope Street, Blackburne Place, Falkner Street between Hope Street and Catherine Street, Maryland Street between Hope Street and South Hunter Street and Caledonia Street.
Cllr Liam Robinson, leader of Liverpool Council, told the ECHO how he felt adoption of the changes had gone. He said: “What we’ve seen in the first few months is certainly traffic movements into the city and parking into the city has not gone down, so that’s a good thing. I think as well, as you would imagine revenue has gone up because obviously we’re charging later into the evening, naturally that’s going to be the case.
“Most weeks we’re seeing it up by about a quarter or a third. The revenue’s going up and that allows us to invest back into that frontline enforcement team.”
It is understood when the political cabinet met ahead of a formal executive group meeting on December 16, it was agreed to move forward with the decision to extend the parking offering along Hope Street to five hours. Cllr Robinson said: “We are very kind of conscious to listen to the different views of businesses and people across the city. I actually had some very good discussions with business groups about some of the tweaks that we’ve already agreed to make around Hope Street, for example, so we’ll extend the four hour restriction to a five hour restriction, just to give the hospitality businesses a little bit more.
“We’re just working through the actual kind of implementation, but that genuinely shows we’re always more than happy to tweak and amend things accordingly.”
Mark Da Vanzo is director of Hope Street CIC. He said: “We would certainly welcome that. Ultimately that means people can bridge the gap between 6pm and 11pm to come out and see a show and not worry about where they’re parking their car.
“That’s all we were asking for, a sensible approach. It’s something we were talking to the city council about.”
Fiona Hornsby operates the Denbigh Castle and Bridewell pubs in the city centre and added The Pen Factory next to the Everyman Theatre to the stable of venues last year. She said businesses had asked the council to bring about the changes pre-Christmas to help boost trade.
She said: “It needs to be six hours. People can come and eat at 5pm then head to the show if it finishes at 10pm. One hour doesn’t really help.”