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Free parking "not the best way" to attract shoppers

By Jon Nurse
January 03, 2013

Business champions believe free car parking is not the best way to attract more shoppers to the borough’s towns.

Mark Walton, Wokingham Chamber of Commerce president, claims car parking is not the deciding factor as to why people do or don’t shop in towns, as a lobby group urges councils to scrap the fees to support small businesses.

The Forum of Private Business is calling for councils across the country to drop town centre car parking charges to increase footfall.

But Mr Walton said: “Reducing them to zero may increase footfall in the short term, but you have to look at the bigger picture as to why people go shopping.”

The forum believes removing charges would make town centres a more attractive place to do business and reduce the number of empty units.

Alex Jackman, the forum’s head of policy, said: “It doesn’t take a genius to work out that councils charging people ever more for the privilege of coming in to their town centres to spend their hard-earned cash is not the best plan to grow footfall.

“Set it against a backdrop of spiralling motoring costs and it’s a recipe for disaster.”

Mr Walton continued: “In Reading parking fees at The Oracle are significantly higher than Wokingham, but there is always a queue because of the overall experience of going into Reading.

“People will shop in Wokingham when they have got the shops they want to go in, at the price they want to pay and the services they want to receive, such as going out for lunch, visiting a coffee shop or if the market is on.”

He added: “The key is that car parking fees are a small piece of the jigsaw and it comes down to quality and mix of shops and that extra shopping experience.”

Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for highways and planning, says footfall in town centres across the borough is on the rise and feels the charges are ‘a great success’.

He added: “The implication is that car parking is potentially putting people off.

“If that was the case I would be minded to agree with them – but it’s not the case here.

“Across the borough there was a 4.6 per cent rise in ticket sales in the last financial year, following a 6.2 per cent rise the year before.

“I think it’s a great success and when it’s put together I don’t think we need to stimulate more people to come in.”

Cllr Baker said the latest council data continues to show the same upwards trend.

He added car parking charges were last raised in October 2008 and insisted fees have reduced year on year when inflation is factored in.

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Is it just me who reads these things and feels like I'm listening to members of Dimley council. Only poblem is the Cllr Horton is not surrounded by imbeciles.

Is quick cheap benefit worth trying? Yes.

Is it not worth doing because you are aboutto put 100 bracknell style flats on the car park . . ahhhh

Kaz4Wokingham, Wokingham
08/01/2013 at 21:04

Is it just me who reads this and feels like I'm listening to members of Dimley council.

Kaz4Wokingham, Wokingham
08/01/2013 at 20:30

@MoJo - I saw that car park and was rather confused. It is monitored by camera, so they can send you a rather large fine automatically if you park and don't pay, but I was rather confused as to whether you had to ring up to say you were parking for free, or if you only had to do that if you stayed, or were going to stay, longer than 30 mins. Why would a private company allow people to park for free at all, I thought? And seeing as it is all done remotely, and through a contract posted up on a lampost that is poorly written from this aspect, I decided not to take the chance and parked elsewhere. Have you experience of using it for less than 30 mins?

mavdo, Wokingham
07/01/2013 at 09:25

The car park behind Cafe Rouge is free for 30 minutes. If you stay longer you then call and pay by card for the relevant amount of time stayed.

MoJo
05/01/2013 at 10:56

Party-politics, Mavdo. It's based on supporting the nonsense that anyone wearing the same tie says and shouting at people wearing a different colour. As opposed to discussing problems and finding the best resolution, like grown-ups. 'Westminster Live' often resembles a creche.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
04/01/2013 at 12:07

@DT - how strange for central government to blame someone else for a policy caused by decisions it made(!) The government has frozen the amount councils can charge, and reduced the grants they get, and now has cut council tax benefit summary by 10% too. But despite all this, Eric thinks it is the councils who are penalising shoppers and motorists by implementing a charge to temporarily place a car on a highly valuable plot of land in the centre of a town?

I can't stand Eric Pickles. Him and Michael Gove speak nonsense almost 100% of the time, yet all their colleagues stand up and agree with them. It's just bizarre.

mavdo, Wokingham
04/01/2013 at 12:04

From the BBC website:

" Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said recently he wanted to expose the "great council cash-cow cover-up" over parking.

Mr Pickles recently described parking charges as a "shopping tax" and accused councils of waging a "local war against motorists".

But Labour said Mr Pickles' Tory colleagues were charging the equivalent of nearly £43 per local household each year.

Responses from 226 authorities to a freedom of information request by the Labour Party showed the figure for Labour-run councils was £29.69 per household per year.

The average was £37.49, with those under Liberal Democrat control bringing in £39.08 and hung councils £34.41. "

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
04/01/2013 at 11:40

I think the story within this article is:-

Tory controlled Wokingham Borough Council are about to put up car parking charges in the budget due to released shortly and have got a friendly man from Chamber of Commerce to say its OK really and helpfully Cllr Baker chips in with the fact that car park charges have not gone up since 2008.

Both the range of shops and the cost of car parking have an influence on footfall, but they are largely independent variables.

The towns in Wokingham Borough (Woodley, Wokingham etc) need convenience shoppers, as they are unlikely to become “destinations”. Although Wokingham may have some “30min free” spaces, Woodley does not and local Lib Dems have long championed the need for an element of free parking in all our towns to help residents, traders and maintain vitality.

Other councils in the area (Henley, Bracknell etc) try to encourage shoppers by not charging in off peak hours, whereas WBC choose to tax shoppers as much as they can.

Phil Challis, woodley
04/01/2013 at 09:51

It seems to be working in Bracknell!! "A free parking promotion in Bracknell running since the summer has been extended until the end of January. Bracknell Regeneration Partnership's "Free from 3" promotion, which allows free parking for shoppers after 3pm on weekdays, has been so successful the town centre landlord has extended it. Rob Morris, general manager of BRP said.... The increase in numbers visiting Princess Square after 3PM on weekdays has shown that this is something that local shoppers want. "

Stig2, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 22:38

@Paul D - I prefer to use Tesco for what they are good at - groceries. For everything else, they are at best average at everything, but good at nothing. There are better banking deals with proper banks; the dry cleaning takes longer than a store that can do it on site; they don't do picture framing; the flowers they offer are of a lower quality than a professional florist (eg no support to Gerbera flowers, no leafy presentation; don't last as long etc), but then florists don't do £5 bunches of flowers so Tesco do fill a gap in the market there. The selection in Health and Beauty isn't as good as Boots or Superdrug who specialise in these areas.

In my experience, because you have to wait for Click&Collect to have the goods delivered to store, you'll get better deals online just as quickly. Prices are usually comparable to other high street retailers such as Argos where you can walk in and buy it. But you can get a few good deals, it just seems a bit of a flaky add-on to me.

@ponerana - Why would I buy all that to cycle in the dark and wet with a bunch of really heavy shopping? I have a car with ample boot space, that stays dry, and has built-in headlights is so much easier. If you quadrupled the cost of fuel, I'd still drive to the shops (although that might be about it). If you wish to, and can manage to use a bike, congratulations. I thoroughly support you. You are not in the majority.

@Damiano - agreed. This is why a Town Centre supermarket would be bad for most of our current traders and why I actually think it would harm the town centre we now have.

mavdo, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 17:16

(matching? machine!)

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 17:16

Smiffy - that's a high-maintenance cad park too, isn't it - as opposed to the bits of tarmac with a ticket matching and lamp-post that most of Wokingham's car-parks consist of.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 17:15

PoneRana - There is no way a weekly shop for 2 adults and 2 kids would fit on a bike unless there were front and back panniers and a huge rucksack. I'm sure there is an easier way... oh yes, it is called using a car or easier still online shopping where they deliver the weekly shop to the front door!

Smiffy, Reading
03/01/2013 at 17:02

In other news: http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/business/s/2126527_free_from_3pm_parking_scheme_extended_until_end_of_january

Paul Daniels' reattached finger.
03/01/2013 at 16:46

Ponerana, if you can convince one person to use a bike to do the weekly shop, good for them and good on you. It doesn't solve the issue for the town though; Wokingham can't expect many people to visit via bicycle. That said, we're turning Elms Field into ANOTHER supermarket, which will probably have free parking, so soon we can all park for free!

As Paul Daniels'... has pointed out, a supermarket tends to offer the same services as a number of shops - so here's looking forward to the extra footfall and improved trading for our town centre when this new supermarket/superstore opens. Because that's definitely what will happen, eh WBC?