Backwards parking decisions in Wrexham
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With the problems businesses face at the moment (particularly retail) I’m really surprised there are so many stupid decisions when it comes to parking in and around the town centre. Many of these have been going on for ages but after parking in Eagles Meadow last night it appears things are only getting worse.
One of the main problems for shops is getting people into them, yet parking fees are a problem for many and so they often just go to the supermarket instead and don’t bother going into the town centre. What the shops are missing out on are impulse buys, walking past a shop, happening to browse in etc and buying something – if you don’t walk past a shop there’s no chance of this happening.
Ok now here’s where the stupid decisions start to affect this – first of all the rules on not leaving car parks to go to businesses outside them, ie. Matalan, Dunelm Mill car parks and more. I quite often need to pick parcels up from the post office and so used to park in Dunelm Mill and at times went in there and ended up buying something. Since they started these rules I now park in the train station instead and so don’t end up going in. This means these businesses lose trade – they don’t gain from the car park fines (which are a joke anyway as everyone knows) so what positive is this for businesses there? I could understand if the car park was full but by Dunelm Mill never has been since it opened so what’s the point?
Then we come to Eagles Meadow – a lot of people already just park at Tesco and walk across anyway but now they’ve increased their rates (by 50% at night to £1.50) – WHY??? Are they so moronic they don’t realise that doing so will reduce the numbers further? They’d get a lot more people parking there if they halved the price instead. It’s never anywhere close to being full, even at Christmas last year there were always plenty of spaces – again, less people parking there, more harm for the businesses.
Having a full car park generates them a lot more than a nearly empty one, so why not use some business sense and do something to actually make the car park full? Remember how the makeshift one by the post office years ago used to permanently full due to it being so cheap? and that was much further away from the town centre than EM! I know it was much smaller but you get my point.
It just annoys me when small things such as these could really improve trade for many businesses in and around the town centre, but of course it won’t happen.
The issue of parking around Wrexham is certainly a contentious one at present. The council have done well to introduce free parking on Crescent Road and the Peoples Market and it’s being taken up well too. However, as you say the problem seems to be caused by private car park owners. In the past two weeks we’ve had contact from people given invoices for parking in Halfords for not going in, Eagles Meadow for having their ticket upside down and the other was from the car park by Home Bargains. Quite often these are speculative invoices rather than proper civil fines or the like so we’ve got an article to follow soon.
That’s exactly what they are, invoices. And, as you haven’t entered into a contract with them, there’s no reason to pay the invoice.
The Council’s car parks are only 50p from 6pm. It maybe a case of so few people using the Eagles Meadow car parks at night that they have fallen into the trap of putting up their prices to compensate, thinking they will make more , but the reality will be less people using them. Many people have stopped using them for short stay since they made £2 the minimum daytime charge. M&S are probably the losers there as people tended to pop into their food hall.There seems to be a lack of cohesion between the car parking and shopping in Eagles Meadow, common sense would suggest cheaper parking increases footfall and profits for both.
The system I’ve seen a few times is you get so many hours free parking when you spend say £5 at any one of the stores. The retailer simply validates the parking ticket at the till. This would be ideal at Eagles Meadow as the vast majority would end up with free parking.
Personally, I begrudge paying to park there when I am going to spend maybe £30 – £40 in the cinema and restaurant. It should be free if they want to increase customers.
At Eagles Meadow it is £1.50 to park after 6pm gone up from £1 and now you can no longer buy parking for an hour not ideal for those just popping to the stores at Eagles Meadow, but considering there is a car park further on from Mecca bingo with free car parking from 12pm and an option to park on the side of the road Everland is on for 30 minutes it is great for the daytime, but as for at night i do not fancy parking there.
As for the rest of the town you have the option of the multi storey car park for free after 12pm if there are spaces available.
It could be a lot worse, but my only issue like the rest of the people on this forum is private car parks with Dunelm, Matalan and Staples they should not punish those people who are visiting the town especially during these times as they are hardly going to fill the car parks and therefore people who made their way specifically to shop at those stores are still able to park there.
Have to agree. I had a ticket for parking at Central retail park when visiting Dunelm because i went over to Wilkinsons(not paid but they’re hounding me well!). Not been back to island green or central since whereas i or wife used to be there at least every other week. Agree with comments re.Eagles Meadow as well, if going to pictures,bowling something to eat etc why should you pay as well.
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