Leader: Shrewsbury parking fees linked to prosperity
Ask a shopper who is not taking advantage of the impressive and varied range of shops in Shrewsbury why they give the county town a miss and a likely answer is to do directly or indirectly with transport.
Ask a shopper who is not taking advantage of the impressive and varied range of shops in Shrewsbury why they give the county town a miss and a likely answer is to do directly or indirectly with transport.
The town does not give out a car-friendly image. It is a bother getting in and the parking charges are a pain.
This cuts no ice with the council raking in the cash from those parking charges. Shropshire Council makes the money while traders take the hit.
In recent weeks something remarkable has happened. Sunday parking charges in the town have been slashed. The result? Traders say they have seen takings double.
While it would be simplistic to see a direct correlation, as there may well have been various factors at play, it nevertheless powerfully suggests that the level of parking charges in Shrewsbury affects the economic health and vitality of the town.
Traders are understandably calling for the cut-price fees on Sunday to be made permanent - the trial is due to end on September 9.
In these straitened times the council will not be jumping at the prospect of reducing the amount of easy income it can make for its coffers.
But that takes a very narrow economic view. For a start, if halving charges brings double the number of cars, then nothing has been lost.
There is also a fundamental point. Shropshire Council does not exist to generate money for its own coffers. It exists to serve the people and their interests, while being run with economic prudence.
Encouraging more people to come to Shrewsbury generates extra income for the town’s economy. That is something to be thoroughly welcomed and encouraged by councillors, even if the money is not going directly into the council’s pocket.
Economically Shrewsbury needs to think in terms of the overall size of the pie, rather than how big the slices should be.
Comments for: "Leader: Shrewsbury parking fees linked to prosperity"
Sammy
Shropshire Council exists to serve the people? That's rich! They're only interested in achieving targets to covers their own backsides. If they haven't screwed up Shrewsbury yet it is only a matter of time.
Kat de Gana
S' bury parking jis no more expensive than that in comparable places. Of course historic towns are never going to be car friendly. If people can't afford to park they are hardly likely to be able to spend in boutiques.
Port Hill Boy
Parking in places like York or Oxford is way more expensive than Shrewsbury yet they attract millions.
It's not the parking price it's the quality of what there is in the town.
The DR
It will be interesting within the next year or two when Shropshire Council have littered the edge of Shrewsbury town with even more supermarkets leaving just streets of litter and tumble weed in the centre as more and more retailers close up shop what they will do with all the empty car parks around the town, how many times do councillors of Shropshire need to be told they have it wrong but continue at the taxpayers’ expense to do what they want, what happened to the Big Society scenario
Nick
Doesn't the reduction in Sunday parking fees correspond with the relaxation of rules on Sunday trading?
As far as I am concerned, better opening times and more shops open is more likely to encourage me into Shrewsbury on a Sunday than parking costs.
Roger
We have three park and ride schemes and a vast network of rail services. Parking in the town has become critical because of the failure of people to use these services. The main factor in that was the restrictions on these services to be attractive to the users. As an over sixty I used to use Park and Ride because it was convenient for me to park out of town and ride in. The free use of this service making it cheaper to park in town. So the car parks overflowed and parking became a problem.
Then they increased the parking charges to I took the view that the cheapest alternative was simply not to go to town.
Now they have reduced prices on Sundays but I have just lost the habit.
We have also been afflicted by a series of road traffic measures which seem to be purpose designed to impede the traffic and therefore the visitors. Clearly the operation of traffic lights is not working as well as it used to, and silly traffic control measures like the Smithfield road bollards were anti visitors. The proposals still go on to delay and frustrate drivers who in many cases are visitors such as the northern approach. Visitors will conclude that Shrewsbury is simply to congested to visit.
I now note that on the rare occasions that I have to go to town I have no difficulty parking at all. Even taking austerity into account it can only be concluded that the council have effectively changed shopping in Shrewsbury town centre to the shopping of last resort.
It is the council’s duty to reverse this situation by making it attractive for locals to use park and ride by making it the best option at lowest price possible and that access to the Town centre for visitors is enabled by reducing traffic delays and improving signage to reasonably priced parking.
Roger
"The free use of this service making it cheaper to park in town. So the car parks overflowed and parking became a problem."
Should be the withdrawl of the free use..............
a g bell
The majority of independant shops and cafes don't open on Sunday anyway, giving the appearance of a half-dead town centre, even attractions like the Castle are closed, and the claim of a 50% increase in trade seems a bit far fetched!
Shrewsbury's car parking charges compare favourably with most other town and cities I've been to. The dicincentives to shopping in the town are the almost complete lack of Sunday bus services and extortionate charges on the ones that do run - believe or not it costs a minimum of £11.60 for a family of 2 adults and 2 children to go into town and back - compare that to taking the car into town and parking it.
The Park and Ride is the way forward and if other councils can make it pay and work properly then why not SCC. Subsidising car parking charges on a Sunday is counterproductive in the long term, it justs make the town more congested and unpleasant to walk around, more polluted and less safe.