Council admits parking mistakes (From Salisbury Journal)
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Council admits parking mistakes
9:31am Thursday 14th July 2011 in Show Some Sense campaign By Morwenna Blake
WILTSHIRE Council has admitted it made mistakes over parking and announced a full review of charges in the light of the Journal’s Show Some Sense campaign.
The council held its hands up to failing to consult Salisbury’s chamber of commerce about parking charge increases because its contact details were not on the database used to send out letters.
And at a council meeting held in Devizes on Tuesday, leader Jane Scott announced the review, signalling a potential u-turn on the decision to hike charges to £7.40 for a day’s parking with a minimum two-hour fee of £2.20.
The review will be carried out in November, and a year-on-year analysis of the number of cars using every car park in the county and the total revenue gained will test how they have fared compared to last year.
Cllr Scott said a redemption scheme, through which people can claim parking money back from retailers who sign up to it, is also to be considered.
The details have not yet been worked out and discussions will be taking place with business groups in Salisbury as well as with business owners as to how the costs of the scheme will be met.
Comments(7)
karlmarx
says...
2:59pm Thu 14 Jul 11
Exactly why will it take so long to re-introduce the 1 hour minimum parking?
Is it that the council see the opportunity to waste yet more taxpayers money on meetings, consultations, surveys, opinion polls, strategic planning briefings, appraisals etc...
Get real, get moving and do something now!
davidlaw
says...
10:38pm Thu 14 Jul 11
karlmarx
says...
11:49am Fri 15 Jul 11
As a pilot script for a situation comedy this would be very encouraging but, people's livelihoods are at stake here.
It is becoming more and more obvious that this Tory council is completely out of control and out of touch with the people.
sapiential
says...
5:14pm Fri 15 Jul 11
Now they need to admit they have got the closure of all the TIC's in Wiltshire wrong as well.
I don't think businesses in Salisbury or anywhere else in Wiltshire for that matter have woken up to the consequences of the closure of the TIC's
Research shows that the TIC's contribute in excess of £3m annually to the Wiltshire local economy by generating increased visitor nights and visitor spending with local businesses.
I do wonder whether our councillors actually think about the consequences of their decisions.
There is not much evidence that they do.
Grampie
says...
9:27am Sat 16 Jul 11
Typical incompetent Conservatives. They talk about cutting red tape, then have in place a system where they cannot take executive decisions.
Don't forget at the next election, it was CONSERVATIVES who voted for this policy, not any of the other parties
I still haven't seen anyone on the Journal web site supporting the actions of this Conservative administration, except one person from Trowbridge and he was taliking about rubbish.
salisburyresident
says...
9:13pm Sun 17 Jul 11
Salisbury businesses are in real trouble NOW! I was talking to my barber the other day about this subject. This is a small business in the center of the city. I was told that since these huge increases in parking charges were imposed, their business hard reduced by about 30%. This reduction now seriously threatens the very survival of this business! This would put 4 people out of work and leave yet another city centre shop empty. Well done Wiltshire Councillors! Let's not do anything in a hurry. Let's wait, have a think, undertake a review, and hopefully do something next year. WHEN IT IS TOO BLOOMIN LATE!
I guarantee that if they re-introduced a sensible 1 hour parking charge, maybe £1, if they scrapped parking charges on a Sunday and got rid of all the free loading council employee parking permits, Salisbury would be a much more prosperpous place.
IanMcL says...
1:00pm Thu 14 Jul 11
Current outcomes for example are Central Car park - usage halved but revenue about the same...because users are paying double (2 hours instead of one hour)
Market Place - massive % increase in use because it is the car park nearest all amenities and therefore, if you have to spend the money, get the nearest place.
Culver Street - usage collapsed.