FOI reveals low usage numbers at some Maidenhead car parks

The Royal Borough’s cabinet lead for transport said work is being done to tackle the low usage in some Maidenhead car parks.

The number of spare spaces at car parks such as the multi-storey on Vicus Way has been a major talking point in the town for many years.

Many have been concerned about the proximity of car parks to the town centre and their condition.

Cllr Geoff Hill, RBWM’s cabinet member for transport, has responded to the criticism and said there are around 1,000 spare parking spaces in Maidenhead every day.

He said that there is ‘plenty of space’ in car parks in the town, but ‘it’s just not very well utilised’.

The Advertiser has received the results of a Freedom of Information (FOI) showing the monthly usage of car parks in Maidenhead from August 2024 to July of this year.

In August 2024, there was an average of 47 cars a day parking in Vicus Way car park – less than a tenth of its capacity of 503 spaces.

By contrast, West Street car park, a surface level car park typically used for short stays, only has 59 spaces and recorded an average of 284 cars a day in the same month.

Despite remaining largely empty, Vicus Way has seen some improvements over the past year. An average of 82 cars were parking there each day as of July this year.

Cllr Hill recognised the stats for the car park had been ‘appalling’, but said the increase was testament to the marketing the council had done to promote the car park.

“We’re getting there, but it’s really slow,” Cllr Hill added.

“It’s in the wrong place. It’s too far away to walk to the town centre.

“It’s a bit too far away from [Maidenhead railway] station.”

Usage of Hines Meadow car park – which has a capacity of 1,320 – peaked over the Christmas period in December at 849 cars each day, but dropped down to a low of 636 cars in April.

Cllr Hill added that work to make improvements at Hines Meadow car park ‘is on the list’ and he just needs to ‘get it in the budget’.

“I think it looks tired and it puts people off, so we need to smarten it up,” he said.

He added that the design is ‘not great’ and is ‘very old fashioned’, but while he cannot change this, work such adding a fresh coat of paint could smarten up the car park.

Cllr Hill added there is still parking capacity available at Stafferton Way car park each day.

The car park has 576 spaces, with 100 spaces not in council use.

The week, residents got in touch with the Advertiser to share concerns over the condition of the car park.

Cllr Hill said the Grove Road and West Street short-stay car parks in the town centre are ‘wildly busy’ and are ‘very, very high turnover car parks’.

Usage of West Street has remained high, recording an average of 287 cars each day in July this year.

There was an average of 221 cars in Grove Road car park (which has a capacity of 82 spaces) each day in the same month.

“Grove Road and West Street are very, very popular because they’re easy to get into,” Cllr Hill added.

The council will run another campaign next year to try and boost usage, he said.