Free parking for Christmas shoppers in Oswestry

Town councillors agreed to waive charges on the three car parks run by the authority on the weekends of December 8/9, 15/16 and 22/23 at its meeting on Wednesday.

The early Christmas present to drivers will cost the council £9,000 in lost pay and display tickets.

In recent years the council has offered free parking from 2pm each day for a fortnight which has meant a loss of £8,000.

Oswestry Chamber of Trade had asked for the afternoon free parking.

Town clerk David Preston said he had spoken to the chairman of the chamber about the alternative weekend parking and said members would be grateful for whichever decision as a gesture to helping shopkeepers.

Councillor Chris Schofield said he hoped it would encourage people to come into Oswestry to shop.

The council is looking at re-structuring its car parking charges next year to woo more shoppers and visitors to the town.

One of the ideas being looked at is to get rid of the hour parking fee and have a two hour fee instead.

On Wednesday the markets and town centre committee chairman Councillor Paul Milner said recent figures for the car park showed that 40 per cent of tickets were for an hour.

"I hope we don't put people off coming into town if we remove the hourly rate," he said.

Councillor Mark Jones said he too was concerned.

"I have talked to our car park attendants and they say a lot of people pay for an hour to nip into town to do their shopping," he added.