Wokingham Town Focus

Parking bays in Peach Street
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Meters could spell end of free parking in Wokingham

By Hugh Fort
June 09, 2009

Meters could bring an end to free parking in Wokingham - and improve footfall in the town centre.

The proposed parking meters scheme is designed to stop tight-fisted drivers using the borough’s 188 parking bays in the town to park for long periods of time free of charge.

Wokingham Borough Council hopes the scheme will boost trade in the town centre by freeing up the bays for drivers who want to pop in to use shops for a short time.

The parking meters scheme will cost £145,000 to install and £150,000 a year to run.

The savings are estimated at £70,000 a year.

Drivers would be charged either 50p or £1 for half-an-hour’s parking, which would be the limit for the town centre bays.

Out-of-town bays would have a one-hour stay limit.

The council’s executive committee gave the scheme the thumbs-up at a meeting last month at the Shute End offices.

A public consultation will be held in September and the council’s overview and scrutiny committee will also look at the plans to decide whether to push ahead with the scheme.

At the meeting, Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for highways and transport, said: “This scheme is designed to help retail activity in the town centre and to help residents who own parking permits, who often find they can’t park in spaces near their homes.”

Cllr Gary Cowan suggested when the scheme is examined by the scrutiny committee, the parking spaces should be looked at individually, which Cllr Baker agreed with.

The scheme has been met with some concern by Wokingham Liberal Democrats.

At the start of the meeting on Thursday, Liberal Democrat councillor Phil Challis asked Cllr Baker how the policy of introducing charging for free spaces would improve town centre trade.

Cllr Baker replied: “These parking bays are regularly being abused by motorists, who are in the habit of significantly exceeding the time limit.

“You appear to be arguing for the free parking to be continuing as it is today.

“Since the majority of these [spaces] are occupied by long term parkers I am unclear as to how this helps support the vitality of local trade?

“More cars means more people, which I believe is what the retailers are looking for.”

If the scheme is introduced, there will be no free peak-time parking in Wokingham, although the car park at Shute End will still be free at weekends. Parking in the town centre has been a controversial issue over the years.

Prices in all council-run car parks have been increased and in private car parks, including one in Rose Street, drivers have faced hefty fines from clamping firms.

There has also been confusion over the Denmark Street car park, which is split in to two areas, with one operated by the council and the other operated by private firm Euro Car Parks.

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This is to cover the meters, staff to patrol and enforce tickets etc. Currently the spaces are not properly monitered due to staff shortages.

Swifty, Reading
09/11/2010 at 22:53

Are the free spaces not properly monitored? As far as I am aware, they are limited to half an hour parking with no return within 2 hours. Get caught breaching these restrictions and you get a parking fine. Same thing applies if there's a parking meter. If somebody is checking up on vehicles in these spaces regularly the only reason to install parking meters is to generate more revenue for the council. Leave our free parking alone!!

LD
09/06/2009 at 22:01

I still don't understand why no one is issuing tickets to those cars which do seem to overstay the current parking periods - that would surely be a first step and cheaper too.