Letter: Live in Wem? Then shop in Wem
Wednesday 20th April 2011, 6:00AM BST.
Letter: Please, please, please shop in Wem again as car parking charges (first hour free then 10p for two hours) are really making a difference to the towns independent shops and all the local charities and community groups who sit in the Town Hall and Co-op to raise funds are suffering.
Also they need your help to survive this recession, so if we lose the carnival, festival, scouts, guides etc. it will be of your own making.
Are you saving petrol going out of Wem? Think about it, and before you ask, I do shop in Wem.
Name and address supplied
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I don’t live in Wem but on a farm 3 miles away. Wem is my closest town and yesterday I was actually shocked to see that car parking charges had been introduced, now I can see they’re not much but I shall now have to think about whether to drive 3 miles to Wem and pay to park or 3 miles to Tescos and not. Stupid move if the council want Wem to thrive.
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Couldn’t agree more with Joy. I’d like to know how much the ticket machine cost to install in the first place? I saw TWO Shropshire Council workers emptying them one Saturday (on overtime rates?) and yesterday, one of the machines was already broken.
Has anyone yet seen a traffic warden patrolling the car park?
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I wonder if the amount of money this will raise will even cover the cost of collection and enforcement?
I must say that drivers who are unwilling or unable to pay 10p for up to three hours parking are hardly likely to be generous donors to the charities the letter writer mentioned.
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It’s a pity that Shropshire Council didn’t listen to the people of Wem who said the introduction of car parking charges would ruin the town. Was it a poor attempt at humour that the charges were introduced on 1 April? Unfortunately it’s no joke for the shops, businesses and fund-raisers in Wem.
Although 10p for 3 hours parking is a very small amount, anything over this time is unreasonable. Last Saturday I spoke to someone helping at a coffee morning, and it would have cost them £2 to park. Instead they had parked in a side street to avoid the charges.
Parking on side streets in Wem is ridiculous. You only have to look at the likes of Barnard Street where many residents used to park in the Mill Street car park. They now park on-street, right up to the junction. Similarly, people are parking away from the town centre and catching the free bus into town to do their shopping.
I know Wem Town Council has been lumbered with the costs of running the parking scheme, even though they were against the introduction of parking fees.
If Shropshire Council’s plan was to make money from this scheme, I doubt very much that they will. I wonder if, at the end of this financial year, they will be upfront and state how much the cost of installing the machines and monitoring the parking has cost, against the revenue raised? I seriously doubt any profit will have been made.
I think all Shropshire Council’s plans to improve Wem are having, and will continue to have, a detrimental effect on the town. We already have a Town Hall Ghost, we don’t want Wem to become a Ghost Town!
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Live in Wem,,shop in Wem. A noble sentiment I’m sure, but the reality is that you cannot shop in Wem as you could a few years ago. Where is the decent shoe shop, clothes shop etc.etc..
The sad truth is that Wem is NOT a good place to shop. I know someone who lives in the town who shop at Tesco on line, and have their goods delivered to their kitchen, all this and it is still cheaper than the not so super market on the car park.
Wem IS a ghost town already I’m afraid, and now with the parking fees being introduced, the situation will only get worse.
Welcome to Wem, sorry, we’re closed 4 days per week.
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I am sure no money will be raised from the parking charges after the cost of the machines and staff costs have been taken out. However I do find that parking is SO much easier in Wem car park now. Before it was almost impossible to find a space at busy times – maybe because some workers parked all day. I have never had to pay as I can do my shopping, go to the library, etc. within the hour. Even 2hrs at 10p is fine by me. I am actually MORE inclined to shop in Wem now that it is easier to find a parking space.
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I think we’re forgetting the fact that the charges WILL increase, these are entry level charges, slowly but surley they will increase.
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10p to park your car to go shopping…. try the £9 a day I have to pay 6 days a week just to go to work and then you’ll realise how good you have things.
Also, I went to Wem town once to do some shopping and it was closed… what shops was I meant to vist, a ghost town already is spot on?
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when travelling up to shropshire from devon, i frequently visit the delightful town of wemt, yes they could improve the shops, but small parking charges should be ok, as for £9 a day this should immediately be slashed to 4. have shropshire council no sense, how do they think the many small towns of the county are to survive commercially. if wem cannot survive with the help of its residents,it is a poor show. john betjamen when writing of wem described it as good for ale and cheese but little else.
i feel sure wem and wemonians are built of sterner stuff than this. time for us all to do our christmas shopping, ah yes lets go to wem, bishops castle next year and so on. floreat salopia, shame about your council
aj devon
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I trust your comment was intended to be amusing aj, because it most definitely is.
Christmas shopping in Wem??? I think not, unless you mean to bombard your hapless relatives with supermarket biscuits and sweets. There is not much else to find there now. I doubt you can even buy a decent pair of socks in Wem at the moment,and, as for the ale and cheese,that died quite a while ago, a little like the town itself really.
I find it very sad to visit the town now. As a child I used to go every Saturday with my parents to do the weekly shop,and do it they did, everything needed to keep us through the week. You could hardly walk on the pavements they were that crowded. Now, you could ride a motorcycle down the length of the high street, on the footpath, with little chance of hitting anyone.
I don’t know the answer, but it certainly is NOT to charge people for parking on a car park that was built with ratepayers money.
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I parked on Broad street in Ludlow last week
10p for half hour reasonable i thought.
So i have to ask why so much more to park in Shrewsbury?
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