Parking From Macclesfield Express

I've not tracked down a copy of today's paper yet, but I understand that I may have had the following column printed:

At the next council meeting we will debate a motion to suspend car parking charges on Saturdays.

As readers of my blog will know, I believe we need to reduce parking charges to boost our ailing town centre and get shoppers using local traders. Therefore it may confuse you when I say I don’t think this is the right move.

Without question the best stimulus would be to scrap charges completely. But this would see car parks filled by commuters and the loss in revenue would be unpalatable. Removing Saturday charges will still cost a significant amount and may not encourage a huge increase in trade. Crucially, it doesn’t help traders throughout the week. Therefore, I’m leaning towards a “free after 3” or “free at lunchtime” scheme.

To ascertain what system is best, we must consider why charges are a disincentive. It is not necessarily the cost, but the hassle of having the correct change, finding a machine and getting a ticket. All of us have found ourselves without change for the machine. For this reason I’m not too keen on the idea of a ticket refund scheme, although it’s another good option.

Dropping charges will result in hole in the budget that would probably be paid for by council tax, and it’s not fair that visitors to Cheshire East would get to park for free at the expensive of residents. So perhaps another idea would be for residents to buy parking permits that allow short term parking, in conjunction with a time disc to control length of stay. Tourists would continue to pay as normal.

We need action, but we shouldn’t rush into this. There are a number of options which we must balance against the financial implications. It should be a good debate.