Overnight parking charges scrapped in Oswestry
Oswestry Town Council has scrapped overnight charges in its car parks which have previously raised more than £10,000.
The council, which runs the town's three main car parks, has passed an amended motion to get rid of charges between 6pm and 8am.
The council said at a Finance and General Purposes Committee meeting on Monday that charges between these times have previously raised £11,000, despite many residents not even knowing the charges existed.
Green Party councillors, who put forward the changes to charges on Central and Smithfield car parks and the Horsemarket, also wanted to rescind the one-hour parking charge of 50p and replace it with an 80p charge for the first two hours in a bid to keep shoppers in the town for longer.
But Shropshire Councillor Vince Hunt said having a two-hour charge in the car parks would cost residents £44,000 more a year.
"When we first discussed this, officers suggested it would increase council revenue by £44,000 – so if the car parks maintain their current use it will cost Oswestry residents and visitors £44,000 more a year to use our car parks," he said.
"This negates the £11,000 loss from overnight charges but I'm not entirely sure this is what we should do.
"One of the things Oswestry is known for is its cheap parking and what we're proposing to do is make it more expensive, I'm not comfortable with that."
An online public consultation on the issue, which saw a higher proportion of people respond to than both the Future Fit consultation and Shropshire Council's planning policy, showed a two-to-one response in favour of scrapping overnight charges.
Overwhelming
Putting the motion, Green Party Councillor Duncan Kerr said: "It's great to see the hundreds of people that took the time to respond to this.
"I think when we have this overwhelming two-to-one support for the motion, I propose we implement it as originally put."
But Oswestry's mayor, Councillor Sandy Best, proposed an amended motion which was passed, saying a large number of residents want to keep a one-hour charge but do not currently pay for parking overnight.
"A lot of people know there isn't a car parking attendant after about 5pm anyway and tend to just park there," she said.
"The response from a large number of people is to keep the hour charge rather than pay extra for time they don't actually need.
"We're in the situation where we can remove the evening charges, which people aren't paying anyway, and keep the one-hour charge as it is, as a lot of people say we're one of the cheapest car parks in the area, so let's leave it at that."
The council will now remove charges between 6pm and 8am from its three car parks, while keeping the current one-hour charge of 50p.
