Free weekend parking trial at city centre car park

Parking is to be made free at weekends in a city centre multi-storey car park in a bid to draw more people to the Isle of Man's capital.

The Shaw's Brow facility, on Barrack Street, is set to be made free each weekend from 19:00 on Friday until 07:00 BST on Monday from 3 April.

Douglas Council said the trial was in response to a survey carried out by the town centre management team in 2025 canvassing views on what would encourage people into the city centre.

That had shown that the "limited supply of free car parking" was the main complaint.

Shaw's Brow Car Park, which has 692 spaces, recently underwent £1.6m of refurbishment works.

In its city centre strategy published last year, the local authority said 38% of the comments received had been about parking, making it the number one issue raised.

It said, while snapshots had demonstrated that the availability of car parking was not a problem during peak shopping hours during the week or at the weekend, comments had suggested people did not want to pay to use it.

Some 30% of those who expressed a preference said Saturday was their preferred day to visit the city centre to shop or spend leisure time, with a further 6% preferring Sunday, the Council said.

The survey also showed 74% of people would be more likely to visit on a day or times when more free car parking was available.

The weekend trial is set to be in place until after the Christmas season, when its success in increasing footfall will be assessed, the local authority said.

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