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Cost of parking ‘kills high street’
August 06, 2008
Parking charges are killing high street trade, the Forum of Private Business (FPB) is warning.
The FPB is concerned that, while the Government is backing recommendations made by the Competition Commission to boost competition and protect small suppliers, parking fees are causing consumers to shun town centres.
A survey carried out by the CBI has revealed that high street retailers are experiencing the worst slump in sales in quarter of a century.
More than 60 per cent of respondents said sales were down in the first half of July – over twice the number who reported higher sales.
The FSB believes that parking charges are causing shoppers to reject high street shops in favour of large, out-of-town retailers providing free, on-site parking.
“Access is a major component in determining the future of our town and city centres,” said the FPB’s policy representative Matt Goodman.
“More taxes on motorists mean that high street shops are less able to compete for trade against the larger retailers. The damage caused by various parking charges is done to the community as a whole, because more money is taken out of the pockets of both consumers and local businesses.”
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Labour anti-car policies are just part of Big Bro with marching boots on issuing a record 1,600 new laws a year to micro-manage our every waking minute. And boy are Labour popular for nannying and bullying us!!
This rise in trivia and pettiness is highlighted in parking. 95% of parking tickets are issued within 5mins of exceeding your parking time limit - what a terrible act!
An inditement of Govt and Council pettiness gone mad - if only we could get them in court so easily for over-spends and failure to achieve targets eh?
Do any Govt officials ever get the message that parking officers are so bl**dy unpopular because society does not support their policy? Is any pompous deaf and dumb official listening to how hated their policies are?
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