Posted: Tue 6th May 2014

Proposals To Introduce Parking Charge At Local World Heritage Site

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

Proposals to introduce a fee for parking at a local heritage site are set to be scrutinsed by councillors tomorrow.

In a report due to go before the Employment, Business & Investment Scrutiny Committee tomorrow, it is recommended that a charge to park at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is introduced.

The report notes that visitor numbers to the site have increased in the past few years, with around 321,523 people visiting the site last year. This is compared to the 210,489 who visited the site in 2006.

While car parking charges have never previously been used at the site, it is hoped that the proposed charges will help ‘improve the existing insufficient visitor facilities and infrastructure at Trevor Basin to meet the needs and expectations of visitors’ to the site.

In total there are three car parks available at the aqueduct, however from Spring this year the ‘Reads’ car park has been used as a coach parking space.

The proposed fees and times are listed below:

Trevor Basin car park (adjacent to canal side and toilet facilities) to remain as 27 car park spaces and 3 disabled spaces:
– Short stay parking – for stays of up to 2 hours (£1 per car/ motorcycle)
– Medium stay parking – for stays of up to 4 hours (£3 per car/ motorcycle)

Wimbourne Gate (approximately 500 metres walk from canal at Trevor Basin) to remain as 44 car park spaces and 4 coach spaces:
– Long stay parking – for coaches (£5 per coach); and
– Long stay parking – for cars (£2 per car).

Reads car park (Station Road – opposite canal side) proposal to convert existing car parking into coach parking for 8 coaches and 3 mini coaches:
– Short stay parking – for coaches and mini coach stays of up to 3 hours (£5.50);
– Medium stay parking – for coaches and mini coach stays of up to 6 hours (£9); and for arrivals after 5pm (£5)

Along with fees for parking, it has also been recommended that a charge of 20p to use the toilet facilities is introduced.

It is proposed that a small proportion of the revenue generated from charges for car/ coach parking and use of the toilet facilities be utilised to afford the cost of this additional cleansing of the toilet facilities in the summer months.

Within the report it states: “Over the last 12 months, improvements have been undertaken at the site to upgrade the car and coach parking provision and also to improve the cleanliness and maintenance of the toilet facilities. These improvements have been necessary to meet the needs and expectations of our visitors.

“However, as a result of the recent investment to upgrading the provision of parking and making more formal use of the parking areas, a short and long term parking strategy for the Trevor Basin area has now been developed.

“Consequently, it is reasonable to now consider introducing charging for parking and use of toilet facilities at Trevor Basin, the income from which would be used to invest in the future development of the WHS (World Heritage Site) and enhance the visitor offer.”

The report is due to go before the Scrutiny Committee tomorrow at 6:30pm. You can read the full report on the Council’s website here.

 

(Picture from the Pontcysyllte ‘Light Up The Aqueduct’ last year)



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