Call to axe Much Wenlock parking charges
Tuesday 1st February 2011, 7:27PM GMT.
Traders in Much Wenlock today called for parking charges to be scrapped after partly blaming them for a drop in visitors to the town.
Janice Odum, chairman of Much Wenlock Chamber of Trade, said the town was suffering because of the charges and fuel prices.
And she said while there was charging for parking in Much Wenlock every day other nearby towns, such as Broseley, had no charges at all or no charges on a Sunday.
Mrs Odum, who runs the Priory Tearooms, said: “We are keen to encourage people to come to Much Wenlock. There has been a drop in trade.”
She said the chamber was planning to lobby Shropshire Council to find out why some of the towns had parking charges and why some did not and wanted Much Wenlock’s charges scrapped.
Samantha Tharme, Shropshire Council’s principal transport planner, said: “Shropshire Council’s parking strategy for Shropshire has been designed to bring more consistency across the county, meaning that all towns above a certain size should have parking charges.”
She said: In Much Wenlock we plan to increase parking charges by inflation only, therefore at St Mary’s car park two hours will be increased by 10p to 90p, four hours by 10p to £1.60 and all day by 20p to £3.
“In New Road, we have reduced the rate for all day parking to £1.80, and only 10p for up to two hours, a reduction from 80p for two hours. This is in line with other towns where we are introducing a low tariff on more peripheral car parks. Back Lane remains one hour maximum stay at 50p.”
She said: “We are bringing in seven-day charges in all towns as a result of reviewing car parks across Shropshire and aiming to bring in a more consistent approach across towns of a similar size/level of activity.”
UK News
Most Commented
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Planners ordered to stay on Newport visit bus
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Shrewsbury’s broadband speed one of slowest in UK
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
As a resident of Shropshire and visitor to other parts of the county, it’s not so much the charges that irritate me, it’s the expectation that I should know in advance exactly how much loose change I should carry so that I can feed the correct amount into the meter. That puts me off visiting places more than the charges. If you expect me to pay, I expect you to make it easy for me. It’s a two-way contract.
We live in 2011, not 1981. There’s no excuse for meters that don’t take cards or meters that don’t give change.
More irritating still are the meters that demand your registration number, so tickets with plenty of time left on them can’t be donated to someone else.
Report abuse
What parking spaces!?!
Report abuse
increase the charges by inflation only?? inflation according to the consumerprice index is currently 3.7%, on st marys its been raised “by 10p to 90p”. this would surely suggest a rise greater than inflation??
Report abuse
All well and good but when all the car parking spaces are taken up by ‘workers’ where are the customers going to go to ?
I suppose you could put a strict free time limit, after that £30 should keep them in check.
Report abuse
Would it really hurt Shropshire council to freeze current charges and allow free parkng on a Sunday? Then again, how else are they going to get away with stealth taxes!
Report abuse
When I can, I like to pop in to Much Wenlock as it has a good butcher’s shop and whilst I’m there I may pop in to the Bakery or buy veg from the stalls by the library. I’m often only there for a few minutes and 80p soon to be 90p seems too high a charge. Tesco’s Parking is free. Its no wonder small shops struggle to compete. Shropshire Council really have to decide if they want to encourage independant retailers or let them go out of business.
Report abuse