Parking Charge Increase Proposal – Inc Change To Free Parking
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October 3, 2013 at 6:39 pm #64925
zingerParticipantI remember the good old days when you could park in Eagles Meadow for the day for 30p I think it was. I don’t think that it was expensive to park off Market Street where Home Bargains is now. Not paved but cheap.
October 4, 2013 at 7:35 am #64931
AlunhParticipantCar parking charges are one good way of regulating the number of people coming into a town or not. On any basic demand and supply model, it is clear that the higher the charge, the more it will be that people will resist the temptation to come to Wrexham. This, of course, will all be subject to the degree of responsiveness to any price adjustment (elasticity) detected.
It may be, for example, that a price hike will be a disincentive, it may not.
At this point, the evidence for (say) the People’s Market is not good. Prior to the free parking, this car park was relatively underutilised in an afternoon. Now it is heaving. On an anecdotal basis, as many contributors to this forum have noted, there are other alternatives like Mold available.
My main concern is the mentality behind the adjustments. The Council claim to be trying to reactivate the town and attract shoppers and tourists alike. Such a policy demands an across the board approach and a dedication to that end. It requires plentiful and cheap parking, a great offer and a collective effort to present a welcoming approach to our customers of all types. Surely a better approach would be to cut costs within the Council and to spend less than to charge more. One excellent area to focus on would be the Markets. Find a way to remove cost carrying bureaucrats from the running of the Market and develop a formula to transfer to the traders. Another might be the War Memorial Hall. Try to find a way of removing cost carrying bureaucrats from an underutilised resource and transfer it across to someone innovative.
October 4, 2013 at 3:30 pm #64938
BenjaminMParticipantAlunh, a lot of words to say virtually nothing. Either a price rise will be a disincentive to people visiting the town or it won’t be. It cannot, by pure logic, be both. Which is it? I think that is a case of ‘sitting on the fence’
The number of posts that praise the market are getting boring now. Markets are slowly reaching their demise because it is not what people want in modern society. They were fine many years ago and had a definite place in ones shopping experience. It is stretching the definition somewhat to even call Wrexham a market town now.
One only has to look back to when the Monday market was on St George’s Crescent, then later on the site where Eagles Meadow is today, is was bustling with activity. Present day, Queens Square – two veg stalls, a burger van and little else.
But back to the theme of this topic – I think it would be safe bet to assume that if the increases do go ahead as anticipated, the increased revenue would be offset by two main factors, namely less paying customers and the undoubted hiring of extra traffic wardens (sorry, civil enforcement officers). How about making disabled badge holders non exempt from charges?
Let’s hope that some serious thinking is applied to the whole concept before a decision is made by our illustrious leaders.October 4, 2013 at 4:45 pm #64926
zingerParticipantI think that I could agree on charging people with disabilities apart from they would then have to make the trip to the pay machines. It should be covered by the subsidised cars & road tax. Would it be fairer if everyone who bought tickets could get a refund when using certain venues like the baths, gyms, markets etc? It might help the fortunes of some small businesses. Or if people who used public transport ie buses got a discount in large town centre stores. No big thought has gone into this reply so don’t shoot me down in flames.
October 4, 2013 at 6:50 pm #64917
Born AcornParticipantEagles Meadow should have a parking validation scheme. I know the O2 store does it as there were signs saying so, but all the EM shops should do it.
Buy something in a shop there or use the Cinema or Bowling and you can get your parking refunded.
October 4, 2013 at 9:42 pm #64932
AlunhParticipant@BenjaminM 9527 wrote:
Alunh, a lot of words to say virtually nothing. Either a price rise will be a disincentive to people visiting the town or it won’t be. It cannot, by pure logic, be both. Which is it?
If you actually read what I have written Benjamin- and I do assume that you can- you would see that I don’t sit on the fence.
The truth is that not all price increases have a negative consequence. We all still have to park for work, buy petrol, buy milk, etc. It would be stupid to merely claim that a Car parking increase will have a negative effect on people coming to the town, though normally you would expect it to happen. To provide the evidence to support the presumption that an upward hike MIGHT cause a downswing, I merely pointed out that the reduction in prices in the People’s Market SUGGESTS that there is a provable correlation.
Secondly, to claim that Markets can no longer prosper is a fallacy. There are many very successful Markets now trading across the UK. They may not be on the old model and they may have adapted to the needs of the modern retail world but they are there and do work.
October 4, 2013 at 11:08 pm #64939
BenjaminMParticipantAlunh, perhaps my ‘inability to read’ bears a direct correlation to your inability to translate your thoughts into the written word in a coherent manner. Your rhetorical statement does you little credit.
However, your first post clearly talks about attracting tourists and shoppers alike to the town centre, but when challenged on your assumptions, you deliberately muddy the water by trying to justify your post by including people travelling into the work environment.
Workers have to come in to their place of employment irrespective of their mode of transport, but it not those you are concerned about. You, (as you have stated on occasions too numerous to mention) are concerned with people coming in to town to purchase goods from the towns’ stores.
When posting, please bear in mind the ABC rule – ACCURACY, BREVITY and CLARITY. It may occasionally help to get your points across effectively.October 4, 2013 at 11:44 pm #64915
Philip OsborneParticipant@Rob 9448 wrote:
Above is the proposed changes to parking tariffs, with the current free after midday scheme changing to free after 3.
Oh dear, was the “Free after midday” scheme proving too popular and actually bringing shoppers into town?! We don’t want that now do we! Shoppers?! In town?! Where shops and businesses are actually struggling to get customers?! No!! Let’s drive them all away again by reintroducing charging!
WHEN will British councils learn?! If you want your High Streets to flourish you should be making it as EASY as possible to shop there … instead, our High Streets seem to do everything they possibly can to make it as difficult as possible to actually do any shopping!
Pedestrianise everything so you have to park miles away from the shop you actually want to visit, double yellow line the few roads that do actually remain to drive everybody into car parks, then charge people to park in those car parks so they’ll all go away and shop in the out-of-town retail parks instead of bothering us in the High Street … ah, that’s better, a nice peaceful, completely dead High Street!
October 4, 2013 at 11:55 pm #64916
Philip OsborneParticipant@BenjaminM 9527 wrote:
One only has to look back to when the Monday market was on St George’s Crescent, then later on the site where Eagles Meadow is today, is was bustling with activity. Present day, Queens Square – two veg stalls, a burger van and little else.
One only has to look at the enormous car boot cum market that is held at Chirk every weekend to see just how popular a market can be when the pitches are reasonably priced for the sellers, and the products are reasonably priced for the buyers.
Many people still love to shop at markets when they can get the bargains that they associate with markets. But over-priced pitches lead to increased prices on the products, or offering inferior products because its the only way to keep the prices low. At that point, the market loses its appeal becoming nothing more than a cold, draughty alternative to the supermarket where you can get everything at the same price but in a bright, warm, comfortable environment!
Cut the bureaucracy, lower the prices, bring back the traders and the customers will follow!
October 5, 2013 at 10:56 am #64941
johnhoppyParticipantI will only go into town shopping if I need to visit a particular specialist shop, and then will go by public transport. I would never go browsing in town by car as the car parks are expensive and not very convenient, not to mention the hastle of sometimes looking for a parking space. It is much easier to visit one of the large retail parks that are in the area who offer free and convenient parking. Much mention is made of Mold and its cheap car parking. This works very well, but Mold has a distinct advantage over Wrexham in that the Town Centre is much more compact, and is not a long walk from the Car Park, and consequently retains its vibrant and varied market. With the construction of Eagles Meadow the planners have managed to split the town in two making it difficult especially for the elderly to be able to visit the ‘whole’ town.
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