Parking in the Town Centre

[Slacker]

Can our council representative please confirm the following in relation to the Labour manifesto pleadge of 'fair car parking charges'?

•
Increased all town centre car parking charges by at least 10p an hour
 
•
Made what was the daily rate for Sunday parking now Sunday's hourly rate
 
•
Extended daily charges to now apply until 8.00 pm
 
•
Increased differential charges for market traders from £3.50 a day on Albion Road to £9.60 (an almost 200% increase!)
 
•
Made the charge for Ashgate Road car park 60p an hour
 
•
Increased the multi storey car park tariff from £3.50 to £7.50 (over 100% increase)

By fair did you mean you were going to screw everyone?

Bit one sided in that you don't mention Monday to Thursday free parking for Chesterfield residents (majority of the day) and the introduction of cheap half hour for people just dropping in.

[ubuntu1]

Surely a town centre needs visitors to survive in these very hard times. So wouldn't free car parking be a major help. Certainly in some areas of the country they have tried this and the results have shown more shoppers turn out as a result.

Oh I forgot its not about helping the town its about putting money in the coffers of local authorities....

[Slacker]

It's true that it puts money into subsidising council tax that would have to come from elsewhere if there weren't the charges.
I don't believe abolishing them would help parking as there are only a certain amount of spaces which are pretty full on Saturdays,
NEDDC & Bolsover has free parking but they don't have a focal point town centre, each has 4 plus some smaller shopping areas. Bolsover doesn't provide decent toilets anywhere (except at the council offices & I don't know if they open at weekends.)

[Scimitar]

I can't get my head around the new developments on the Donut - do councils not realise that the general populous of Chesterfield have only so much money to spend? Therefore more shops/supermarkets etc. are going to thin this spending money out.So without free parking people are not going to come to Chesterfield no matter what the attraction is. They will only spend what they have got in their wallets between the available outlets, so they will all suffer(shops) ultimately. If you have to pay through the nose for parking, why come in the first place?

[chesterfieldchris]

POST DELETED AT USER'S REQUEST

[Slacker]

The cost of parking is ridiculous.  I now very rarely go to town, if I do, Ill park at riverside and walk into the centre - unless its peeing down, and then I wont bother as I cant be bothered with walking miles from the nearest free parking space in the wet.

Ive said it before, the council has absolutely zero economic sense what so ever.  They cant see further than jobs numbers and revenue geneation trhough taxes and other items like the parking meters being discussed here.  Obtaining value for money simply does not enter their mind, its too difficult, so frameworks are used to purchase just about everything, as they have zero clue as to what they are doing - they just blindly believe these frameworks offer best value for money.

Could have said the same about supermarkets. 25 years ago the only large one was Presto but all the ones we have now are busy. We have new housing developments springing up everywhere.

[k4blades]

Bit one sided in that you don't mention Monday to Thursday free parking for Chesterfield residents (majority of the day) and the introduction of cheap half hour for people just dropping in.

Eh? Where and how? Occasionally I have to go into town for work reasons and resent paying when I'm only going to be 10 minutes. I'm not aware that I can park free, how does that work?

And the other big con, machines that don't give change. Want to pay 60p to park but many people won't have the right money so put a 1£ in and you get no change, the technology is there because it happens elsewhere, so clearly its just a money grabbing con, yet the council, through trading standards are meant to check retailers to make sure that they aren't treating the public like that, for example with incorrectly calibrated petrol pumps.
One rule for them and one for everyone else.

 

[Pete]

When I go to the bank I park next to the coach station - costs 20 p for 20 mins

I thought you supported austerity measures.

[k4blades]

Since when has refusing to give someone the change they are legally entitled to got anything to do with austerity.
I support local authorities working in a cost efficent way, not conning people. I'll repeat, if money is so short, why spend millions on a re-branding project that the public don't even like and doesn't represent Chesterfield.
And that question you ask is so typical of the thinking of a left leaning person. We need money, lets do through some sort of "taxation". As has been mentioned many times, and is now recognised in many studies on retail spending; offer free / cheap parking, the number of visitors go up, there for the number of businesses increases, and shop closures decrease and the overall income for the council then increases, thats why Tescos, Sainsburys, etc are always competing to be cheapest but simple economics is too complicated for those in the public sector.

And I thought you was on holiday.

[therealjr]

, thats why ....... Sainsburys,...... are always competing to be cheapest

Actually, we don't always!

[therealjr]

When did charges start applying to the few parking places on South Street by the side of Yeomans?
I missed getting a ticket this morning by seconds.

[Pete]

It must be recently Jon - I've not seen it and I often park there when I go to the bank.

I've taken to parking just around the corner by the coach station - 20p for 20 minutes. Just long enough to do the bank run for 20p - suits me.

[therealjr]

20 minutes might just have been long enough.
Theres a machine been fitted right at the bottom but I parked in the very first space next to Yeomans and never saw it or the new signs.
Got back to find a warden was just about to issue me a ticket for non payment but he said as he hadn't started to write it if I shifted the car I was ok. Think the look of total astonishment on my face helped as well !!!

[Pete]

Actually, I nearly got a ticket in that little 20p car park for being 5 minutes late... 

But, like you, I had a friendly warden who let me off - very friendly guy too.

[Slacker]

Parked on the Donut the other week to nip to one of the local shops.

Surprised at lack of free parking discs for Chesterfield on display.

Although patrolled by the same wardens off street parking is Chesterfield on street is Debyshire.

May have said these before but on moby so too trick to look through