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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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Mavdo,

On a bicycle with paniers and a rucksack there is no problem in transporting a complete weekly family shop. They quite happily hold the contents of one of the smaller shopping trollies.

PoneRana, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 15:50

Mavdo wrote 'But if I want dry cleaning, to go to the bank, some flowers, a trip to a pharmacy, a picture frame, or a birthday card, I'll choose Wokingham every time. '

Interesting that for five of those, Tesco in Wokingham provide this service (with banking in the pipe). And what does Tesco have.... Free Parking.

Anyone used the various 'Click and Collect' services offered by the supermarkets for Argos'y type stuff?

Paul Daniels' reattached finger.
03/01/2013 at 15:41

@PoneRana - for me, walking takes 25 minutes each way. When I'm going in for a quick pick up, I'm unlikely to walk for the best part of an hour to do this, and if I was going in for longer, I'd not want to carry lots of stuff back. If I had a bicycle, I might consider it, but then I can't carry any more than in a rucksack. To get the nearest bus, I have to walk almost as far as I would to get to town, and pay more than £1 for a 1 mile journey on a bus that comes irregularly. Although it is a short journey, a car is the only option for me. I do appreciate that for non-car drivers, Reading is less easy to get to than your local town centre, and if you have nearby buses, then using them is a good plan. I would.

@Mark Savill - noting your smilie and therefore knowing your comment wasn't serious, Oyster style parking is actually a nice idea. However, it can't be exlusive, or it would deter non-locals who do not have access to the card, just as the underground is really expensive for tourists who don't know about, or understand, oyster until it is too late.

@Smiffy - absolutely agree. If I want clothes, DIY goods, or electronic items etc, I can't really go to Wokingham - there is nothing there at all. If I want jewellery or expensive items, the choice is also limited. But if I want dry cleaning, to go to the bank, some flowers, a trip to a pharmacy, a picture frame, or a birthday card, I'll choose Wokingham every time. Convenient, local, quick, calm, done.

mavdo, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 14:08

It is quite an obvious comment really. People typically decide on there shopping location based on need rather than parking. Wokingham has very little to offer shoppers, so the parking cost is irrelevant.

Smiffy, Reading
03/01/2013 at 12:46

I shop in Wokingham two or three times a week. I never use the car parks. There are alternatives called buses, bicycles and two feet.

Reading is not a sensible alternative using any of these.

PoneRana, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 12:34

What we need is an Oystercard but for parking:)

Mark Savill, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 12:17

If I need to drive into Wokingham, it tends to be for one reason alone (e.g. picking stuff up from the Post Office, or banking a cheque). I'll typically park in a 30 minute bay (why pay for something that's free?). I'm a good girl so I'll only stay for the 30 minutes which means I'll not take the time to browse the other shops. If parking were 100% free, I'd feel a little more laid back however I doubt it would happen because of lobbying by private car park operators.

Paul Daniels' reattached finger.
03/01/2013 at 11:56

@mavdo - you know how lazy I am - if I'm going to Brown Bag the Paddocks is as far as I go ;)

Being serious though - the short term parking is great, as is Waitrose. I think that's one of the key reasons why takeaways and Blockbuster manage to survive on Peach Street in an otherwise difficult position. Thing is though that these do fill up very quickly, especially around the time I go hunting for lunch on Saturday.

Saying all that - I should just stop being lazy. I only live 7 minutes walk from the town centre.

alex_f, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 11:36

@Damiano - that and the fact that no on-street parking restrictions are enforced in Wokingham. This is why people park on Rose Street for most of the day at times, despite the 30 minute limit. The council don't have the power to enforce it, and the police don't have the resource. The only time illegal parking will be acted upon is if the vehicle is blocking something or someone.

@alex_f - there is some free, short-term parking on Rose Street, and a bit along Denmark Street, plus a few extra places elsewhere if you know where to look, plus the council car park at Shute End is free on Saturdays. You can also use Waitrose if you spend £5 in there (or if the barriers aren't working).

mavdo, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 11:24

If you're only parking short-term, then it must be even more galling to have to pay for the privilege... if you're going into town to take 3 minutes to buy a £1.50 card, having to pay 50p for parking is a bit much.

That might be why people are always parking illegally in front of my home.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 11:16

@mavdo - you make a really good point I hadn't thought of - the importance of the method and timing of paying for parking. I'm not someone who generally has alot of change on me, using my card most of the time. To get change, I'd need to go to a bank and then buy something small from a shop - I'd need to park up to do these things!

The kind of things which I usually go into Wokingham for as well are as you say - smaller specific items, for me usually a bite to eat at Brown Bag or a newspaper from WHSmiths. If I have to faff on going to the bank and getting some change just to do this, I sometimes end up not bothering and just go elsewhere.

alex_f, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 10:51

Agreed Alex - you can park for free on many roads in residential areas in this country, but people still pay to park in town centres because there are shops that they want to go to.

If Wokingham had the shops I wanted to visit, I'd shop there. But after Burtons leaves, the only place selling men's clothes will be M&Co. There is one jewellers, and aside from Waitrose and M&S, which now focusses on food anyway, the majority of the rest of the town is taken up by restaurants, cafes, estate agents, banks, newsagent/card shops, dry cleaners and tanning/tattoo/nail shops. There's probably about ten shops that don't fit into these categories, like the lovely deli on the way to Waitrose.

If I want to go and buy my girlfriend a necklace, but I'd like some choice, I've got two independant shops to choose from. If I want to buy some electronic items... I've got nothing, except perhaps Robert Dyas.

So Wokingham is a place where, if you know you want something specific from Cargo, Argos, Boots/Superdrug or M&S, you'll pop in, get it, and leave, or you pop into the bank or dry cleaners and leave. It isn't the place where you spend your day browsing through the choice, or go for more than a couple of small things. You cannot compare the two experiences, and in this Cllr Baker has got it right. Car parking fees are almost an irrelevance.

The one thing that Reading does better than Wokingham for parking charges is that you pay *after* you've parked and you can pay by card. In Wokingham, you need to make a decision on how long you will stay *before* you leave your car, and pay by exact change. The latter discourages people who may not have change in their pockets all the time, and generally encourages much shorter stays.

mavdo, Wokingham
03/01/2013 at 10:34

I'd probably agree - free car parking would only go so far and only plaster over the problem. I would probably go in town a bit more with free parking, but for general (bigger money) shopping, people (myself included) will still be prepared to pay a fiver for parking to go to the Oracle and Reading.

I'd probably sum it up that car parking charges deter shoppers to an extent, but free car parking doesn't particularly serve as an attraction.