Town Car Parking Charges.
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” Why should someone come and pay to use our car parks if the town centre isn’t open ” the words of the Leader of Wrexham Council.
For years small business owners in the town centre, through the Forum and elsewhere, have requested reduced or no car parking fees.
The town centre retail area has over the years reduced year on year yet parking fees have increased. It has taken the present situation for the penny to drop with the Council.
The question is why are people using the town centre car parks if the town centre isn’t open. They must be gaining some sort of benefit by being parked there, while the town gains no benefit as they are not spending any money in the town. So they should be paying for parking.
Now when the town opens up again, that is the time to remove the parking fees. Why charge someone for the benefit of coming into town to spend their money in the town centre shops and businesses. They should be encouraged to do this, not given a reason to go somewhere else.
The reason the car parks are free now when next to nothing is open is probably because so few cars are using them that it would cost more in revenue to pay someone to patrol the car parks and collect the change/maintain the ticket machines than they would collect in parking charges.
Especially when nobody would be prepared to pay any charges whatsoever, so the car parks would be even emptier again.
Makes more sense to open up the car park to the community free of charge and therefore provide a civic benefit than make life more difficult during times of Crisis.
I dont see why there should not be a small charge for car parking in Wrexham. Much of the shopping activity in the town centre brings little economic benefit to the town. People buying imported goods from chain shops and multinationals who employ a few staff on low wages and shield their profits from tax. Cars bring in pollutuon in their wake and the charge ensures some more money stays local. Of course, charge too much and shoppers will go elsewhere. However, the biggest determinants of people’s choice on where to shop are the High Street offer and their disposable income. Meanwhile, all busineses in retail parks inc Eagles Meadow should be charged a fee for their car parks, say 50p per parking place per day to help fund local services.
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