Parking
-
Posts
-
Wrexham Council still hasn’t got it:( there needs to be a certain amount of free parking, up to an hour perhaps for a start.
Why? Compared to a lot of towns those prices a pretty reasonable, go to Chester and see how much they charge. Maybe traders should get scheme together where if a customer spends so much in a their shop, they get some or all their parking paid. Everyone needs to work together through these difficult times instead of sitting back pointing fingers! Where’s the community spirit?
Scrapping the free after 3 doesn’t make sense. Crescent Road and the old People’s Market car parks always have loads of spaces even though they are free in the afternoon, so charging for parking will mean fewer people in the car park.
If the car park was always full in the afternoons/evenings I could understand them charging to reduce demand.
The council car parks in Wrexham are pretty cheap – Little Roodee in Chester is £5.80/day, Oswestry is £6/day, Chester Grosvenor Centre is £10/day, Chester Pepper Street NCP is an eye watering £16.20/day if you get there after 9am!
[quote quote=139356]Why? Compared to a lot of towns those prices a pretty reasonable, go to Chester and see how much they charge. Maybe traders should get scheme together where if a customer spends so much in a their shop, they get some or all their parking paid. Everyone needs to work together through these difficult times instead of sitting back pointing fingers! Where’s the community spirit?
[/quote]
Ummm there’s a little more to offer in Chester for your parking charge, where as Wrexham needs every help there is to attract people to the town especially with Broughton 10 mins up the road, said it before but Prestatyn is a point in case where the town has been transformed with 3 hours free parking.
Makes a lot of sense – free conveniently located parking incentives is like crack to shoppers, even if it means they only save a few quid (but would actually save them petrol money as well if the don’t have to go all the way to Broughton etc…).
People don’t have to pay to park in Broughton or Cheshire Oaks, or even further afield Trafford Centre.
Increased footfall (vehicle-fall haha) would drive up the commercial revenues and regeneration as stated.
I don’t have a problem with the council spending taxes on providing free parking for people with cars, but only if they match the funds they use with funds spent on public transport. People who don’t have a car should not have to help subsidise those who do.
[quote quote=139410]I don’t have a problem with the council spending taxes on providing free parking for people with cars, but only if they match the funds they use with funds spent on public transport. People who don’t have a car should not have to help subsidise those who do.
[/quote]
Couldn’t agree more, we want to encourage as many people to come into town as possible & a more attractive public transport offering would easily increase footfall.
If say the car park at the back of the library was free for an hour, (as a start) how many people would be encouraged to slip into town for just the odd thing ? at the moment this will not happen with the charges!
I know I keep repeating myself but the 3 hour free parking in Prestatyn has absolutely transformed the town, of which was on the same down ward path as Wrexham is now beforehand.
Councillor Davies Quoted
“Speaking to people in town, looking at social media, the amount of people complaining about prices of parking in town. A lot of shops are struggling and there’s various activities to boost trade, there’s the various forums going on in town, festivals etc. I don’t think any increase on car parks will be beneficial to the shops, personally.
“I am disappointed with the doing away of the free parking, that’s the worst part of it as far as I am concerned. It can’t possibly benefit anyone, all that’s happening is it will raise revenue.
“I appreciate our car parks raise revenue for the council and they do make a profit. However my feelings are a car park shouldn’t be a business, it’s an essential resource for the town and it should be there for the people of Wrexham to park and for the shops to thrive.
“Any increase at this moment, I don’t this is a good idea because motorists are feeling the pinch and I’d be interested to see how much extra these proposals are anticipated to make, because I’m aware we do make a profit from the car park, but I don’t feel the car park should at the moment be used as a cash cow to subsidise other departments.”
He added: “I think the council could be bolder with certain aspects. I’d like to see increasing free parking. I think it would be great to see a scheme where local tax payers could have free parking for two or three hours a week.”
“I am interested how much money is this going to raise and is that the reason for doing it?”As soon as the Council increased their prices and reduced the dwell time in their car parks several years ago, they were told by businesses that they had made a mistake, unfortunately they became stubborn and refused to rectify their error. Now the damage has been done , they have woken up to the problem.
[quote quote=139410]I don’t have a problem with the council spending taxes on providing free parking for people with cars, but only if they match the funds they use with funds spent on public transport. People who don’t have a car should not have to help subsidise those who do.
[/quote]
Bubble, I think you misunderstand the debate. Taxes are not being spent to provide free parking. The car parks actually make a profit and that money goes into council coffers to pay towards other services. My point at the meeting was to freeze car park charges as any increases would deter people from visiting the town to shop or whatever. Also rather than take away the existing free parking during certain hours (which was the proposal), I wanted to see more free parking targeted at Local residents to spend more time in town. The car parks would still make a profit and the Council could use that money as it does now to go towards its budgets. The subject will now go to public consultation, and everybody will have an opportunity to have their say.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
