I promise this'll be the last post for a while about parking.
(Well....at least a day anyway!)
Just been on the blower to Cllr John Hammond, who is both a Cheshire East and Crewe and Nantwich Councillor. I was speaking to him in his capacity as leader for C&N council, where they've just done something quite interesting.
From last weekend, parking in the car parks in the town centre was free. This is quite a departure from the Cheshire East policy, which is looking to bring in charges for free car parks in Congleton from April. Macclesfield shoppers already pay to shop (or rather, they don't shop at all because they don't want to pay).
Lets be honest, it's common sense. They've tried "free after 3" in Chester and had some success. Traders will tell you that people find it tricky to pop in when they have to pay and display. Residents who have a choice of equidistant town centres pick the one with free parking. In fact, they'll drive five minutes extra to not spend ten minutes rummaging for change. So it's no suprise that it was a popular idea with the locals.
But what was a suprise was that the car parks were packed full. Chocker. It was a roaring success.
In these gloomy, recession draped, credit crunched times, joe public proved to be a confounding beast and went shopping. Ok, they probably only went window shopping for something to do on a Saturday afternoon, but I bet more than one ended up buying something they didn't come in for. Some would have stopped for a slow, lazy coffee knowing that they didn't have to rush back to their cars. All would have enjoyed being in the centre of their town.
It all makes so much sense. If we want busy, vibrant town centres as a hub of our community then this is the very first thing we have to do.
I don't know what's going to happen in April when the Cheshire East charges come in - will there be an exemption for C&N? Will we change direction and have a free Saturdays policy across the borough?
Who knows...but you can't now say that it won't bring about the change that we need.
Thursday 5 February 2009
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1 comment:
“From last weekend, parking in the car parks in the town centre was free.”
Just a small point is parking free or WAS it free?
“Macclesfield shoppers already pay to shop (or rather, they don't shop at all because they don't want to pay)”
Are you living in the same town as me? Try finding a parking space in Macclesfield town centre.
“Residents who have a choice of equidistant town centres pick the one with free parking. In fact, they'll drive five minutes extra to not spend ten minutes rummaging for change”
Get real. Do you really believe that someone will go to Congleton to shop, just because parking is free?
How about some serious comments from you with facts not “probably” and “bet”.
How much revenue is taken in a week from car parks in Macclesfield town centre?
How will that revenue be achieved if parking, as you advocate, were free?
How many more people will shop in Macclesfield if the car parks are already full?
When you produce some facts maybe people will be able to make an informed judgement, instead of all this hypothetic rhetoric.
If you prove your case parking could indeed be free.
I agree with you that parking should be free, if not all the time perhaps for the first 1 or 2 hours, however, will the lost revenue be made up with increases in council tax or reductions in services. If on the other hand free parking can be achieved with no extra charges on residents, go for it, make your name. Good luck.
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