Wrekin parking fees plan
Thursday 13th November 2008, 9:00AM GMT.
A proposed new visitor centre for The Wrekin may be a good thing but how would the running costs be paid?
That is the question being posed by Pete Lambert, of Shropshire Wildlife Trust. And it could mean the thousands of visitors to the hill having to pay parking charges to help fund the new centre. Consultation on the centre and its funding will start in the new year.
Mr Lambert is the Wrekin Forest Project officer for Shropshire Wildlife Trust.
- Would you pay to park at The Wrekin? Give your answer in our online poll here
- See also: New Wrekin leaflet published
He said: “The question we have put out is if you want this visitor centre we need to know from the council or parishes or from local people how are we going to pay for this?”
The most likely location for the centre is the 3.8 hectare “donkey field” – a patch of open land to the hill’s western side – which would be big enough for a visitor centre, car park and an area of woodland.
Mr Lambert said: “I don’t think the capital is a particular issue, you can always raise capital but operating something like that is just enormously difficult.”
He said the centre could not be run only on donations but there were options to fund running costs.
It could be local authority-run, be operated by a trust or partnership of voluntary organisations or be a private commercial operation.
The other option would be to impose parking charges.
A £17,000 sum from a £35,750 Telford & Wrekin Council grant to The Wrekin Forest Project is going towards the feasibility study.
If a visitor centre and car park are created on the donkey field, it could see the closure of the unofficial pot- holed layby at the foot of The Wrekin. Many motorists still park there, despite the opening of an off-road car park at the nearby Forest Glen site.
Critics say the long line of cars at the side of the road is a potential danger to pedestrians and motorists.
Mr Lambert said planting trees in the field, using solar power at the centre and giving it a turf roof would help reduce its carbon footprint.
By Lisa Rowley
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The Wrekin is a natural area to visit, why is a visitor centre needed just to walk in the fresh air and view the countryside. Information can be obtained via the internet these days. The public are sick of having to pay everywhere they visit to park cars, some areas should just be available at no additional cost.
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I don’t believe this
Someone from T & W council have noticed the huge amount of cars at the Forest Glen and now think they can make money from parking charges
Disgusting
I should have known that this would happen.
If T & W council can afford a new headqrtrs then well can’t they afford a visitor centre?
May I ask if council staff at the new Telford and Wrekin headqrts are going to pay parking charges to pay for it?
i hope they are
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It doesn’t need one, plus there are much better hills in Shropshire to visit that already have visitor information and “facilities” near by.
The biggest folly I have ever heard of.
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These dog walkers want to come back to a car (or am I getting it wrong when someone told me they were all out dogging then?).
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Another “Jobs for the T&W Boys”, architects, planners, etc.
The sting in the tail is parking fees.
We don’t need a Visitor Centre (which will have to be staffed).
I am sure we are all happy with it as it is, thank you.
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Why wast £17,000 on a feasability study? Just put it out to prvate tender and let the real experts – shropshire business people – decide if they want to invest in it.
I think the fact that there is no “partner” to this scheme shows that it is not feasable.
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Another waste of hard earned public money and totally unnecessary. I don’t know any regular user of the existing facilities who considers a change is justified.
Lucy W sums it up nicely; any person living in the real world can see that it isn’t a viable economic proposition.
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