...n England have been announced by the government.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12105869
"It is lifting a restriction, introduced in 2001, on the number of parking spaces allowed in developments of new homes.
It will also no longer instruct councils to set high parking charges to encourage the use of other transport."
Taketh with one hand, giveth back with the other. But the take is more intrusive than the giving (VAT).
I quite like the second, if adopted by councils.
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But question is whether councils will be happy to reduce parking charge! That may show less revenue on their balance sheets and some bright spark may not appreciate it.
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I will believe it when it happens.
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News report from Knutsford in Cheshire at lunchtime. High Tory...Osborne's patch, and a nice little town with a good range of shops.
Restauranteur in King Street, the main street, welcomed cheaper parking etc but said it wouldn't happen there.
Councellor echoed this view saying they couldn't reduce charges as the council needed the money.
So no change there, then !
Knutsford will survive 'cos it's an extremely wealthy area. So many towns are having their guts ripped out by parking costs and restrictions that i wonder if the brain dead people who ' manage ' these places are aware , or really care, about whats going on.
A legacy, already happening, is good family shops closing or becoming pound shops, with all the expertise of tradesmen dying off gradually.
Ted
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As usual Ted's got it in one...
...the irony of it being neither he nor anyone else with an ounce of common and the ability to see further than the next promotion or expense swindle would ever be employed by the deadbeats who decide.
We avoid town centres like the plague, parking charges and problems being just one of several compounding reasons.
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Parking charges are often blamed for the death of town centres, but I think that's something of a red herring.
A giant out-of-town Tesco on its own offers nearly everything one could want, and there's always B&Q, Argos, Comet etc nearby.
Tens of thousands of lines, all under very few roofs.
Town centres simply cannot compete with that retail offer.
Parking, charged or not, doesn't come into it.
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That's NOT Iffy. It's true.
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>> Tens of thousands of lines, all under very few roofs.
That might apply to many Iffy, and judging by the obscene profits (which are apparently disappointingly low) reported annually by at least one, they are happy as larry to visit these dreadful places, you won't find us there though or millions like us.
Where these retail parks have used their brains and it's paid off is that they have made provision to get people with money to spend in and catered for them (apart from public toilets) by providing decent usually free parking.
Many town centres have been designed with the idea that the car is the equivalent of the antichrist, amazingly forgetting that you want people with a disposable income to come to your town, not provide a warm drop in centre for every chav waster beggar and dropout to congregate in, which surprisingly enough discourages those who you do want.
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Take a look at Manchester City Centre, you will find far classier shops than Trafford Centre can offer. The Arndale has also being bucking the national trend and is getting busier and busier.
City centres are just too small to support the vast amount of cars they would need to if parking was free. Also land a lot more expensive in city centres than in out of town shopping centres.
If some scrappy little town called Oxhot (made up name) want to charge £3 for people to visit their WH Smith then that is their own problem.
I much welcome more parking spaces in new houses though, I dread doing jobs in new builds because parking is often a nightmare.
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gb,
Today, I wanted to get what I now know is called a stop cock key, and to weigh up toilet cistern valves for the blown-up toilet in the caravan.
Oh, and a can of WD-40 to replace the empty one in said caravan.
B&Q is the only game in town, or rather out of it - parking, free or otherwise, is not relevant.
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It beats me that anyone who can cover the costs of car ownership, even coughing up for expensive extras like 18" wheels, baulks at paying 50p to park it where they need to. Iffy's right - the sheds on the bypass attract customers with the illusion of choice and the perception of lower prices. Whether this perception is accurate hardly matters any more.
But what happens if you take the parking charges away? Leamington Spa, which used to be my shopping town (and a fantastic one too) a couple of years ago introduced charges for on-street parking. Previously, you could park free for two hours - if you could find a space, but of course there seldom was one. The change meant that two hours cost £2 - whooo - but the first half-hour was only 20p, or effectively free. Suddenly, people with brief errands in town came in to do them, kept them brief and moved on, leaving the space for someone else with another errand.
In other words, be careful what you wish for: a free town centre car park that is full by ten every morning is more of a deterrent to shoppers than a fair parking charge will ever be.
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quite a few large supermarkets who can afford to run large operations on the edge of the city charge a £1 to park in their car perks and give it back to you when you make purchases
now you can either do as i do and get a few items from these megamouths on your return from the real shops in town and the real market or you can be a lazy so and so and just use the supermarket and get your squid back
we still have the privilege of a real diy shop in our village and he is cheaper than the big boys on most items and you can buy 2 ounce of 2 inch nails
use it or lose it
just like all the people who buy supermarket petrol to save 10 bob but dont realise the long term implications their purchases are making
the dodo is dead and look who killed him/her
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I have a couple of proper DIY shops near me, I still go into the big stores because of the percieved offers though. I then walk out with five screws which are half price in the sale at £3.99 before realising they are 10p each at the hardware shop.
The problem is when I do use the local hardware shops I seem to spend 50p I just don't know how they survive selling washers and such like.
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No one in authority seems able to plan ahead. Land and properties are sold off with no regard to the projected needs of the community.....just a quick buck !
In the city centre here, we have the Great Northern Railway goods warehouse. The first omajor steel framed building in the country and 6 0r 7 stories high with an undercroft.
Parking, right on the button, for thousands of cars. Sold to developers for peanuts and now a hotel ! On a very small local basis, our new Metrolink stop has no parking space whatsoever. Yellow lines are to be put down around the area. Yet, over the station fence was a tennis club with a pavilion and , maybe, 6 shale courts. Long unused and derelict.
100 cars, perhaps ? Did the council look ahead and buy it, they knew the Metro plans years ago...I did !. Of course not, they missed the boat and we now have a row of 10 little houses in a close instead.
The Victorians knew all about long-term quality capital investment........we, of the 20th century, have thrown vast amunts of it away.
When Mrs T and I were stepping out, we used to walk down to the village in the evening, have a drink and look in the shop windows, planning our home. Or, we'd drive to a small town, usually in Cheshire, and do the same. Wouldn't dream of it now because of that other scourge...the roller shutter.
Towns now look like Gulags in the evening. Is there really that much ' smash and grab ' crime ? I suppose it's the insurance companies but I can't really see too much risk with modern double toughened glass. Why would a cake shop/florist/greengrocer/etc be at risk.
Mrs T worked in a very high quality jewellers for many years. One Sunday morning a van turned up, ladders were brought out and the whole roller removed and laid carefully on the pavement....after a few blows from a sledgehammer, all the Raymond Weil watches went to new owners !......might as well have left the door open !
You expect tumbleweed down some streets I've seen !
Ted
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lots of ram raids and bricks on the shops where i live
thing is you can have as many alarms as you want but it will still take a poice car a fair while to get here so shutters it is
i remember one shop i worked in the window cost $4000 to replace
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I used to do ALL of my shopping in my nearest town (Durham) - the car hating council have sold the streets to NCP and therefore the parking charges are high (50p? I wish!) and I now use the out of town retail parks.
I generally would prefer to visit the town centre and use independent shops, but the parking is only one of the stupid measures the council saw fit to introduce. Bus lanes, closing about 5 car parks and opening 1 new one in the centre all mean driving in is a complete pain.
Like its been said before, no council is going to drop their iron grip on the motorists wallet. And what bugs me most is that Durham covered the streets in parking meters where you could previously park for free, and basically now charge for providing absolutely nothing.
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>>People pay for 18" wheels but not 50p for parking...
It's different sort of money, though, isn't it. Hard cash for parking meters. Petrol is "only" on a credit card. Car the money comes staright out of a savings account so doesn't count.
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>> But question is whether councils will be happy to reduce parking charge! That may show
>> less revenue on their balance sheets and some bright spark may not appreciate it.
>>
Well Kingston on Thames is now raising car park fees by 25% to £1 an hour.
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Two measures to "make life easier" for motorists.. - movilogo
