ARE parking charges in Salisbury prior to free parking really that high?
Two hours was £2.80, enough to buy a cup of coffee, half a gallon of petrol which in town will get you 12 miles. At business mileage rates you’d get 5-6 miles. The true cost of running a newish middle of the range car is 70-90p a mile and you might make the city boundary.
Car parks are worth many millions to a developer.
They do not generate any income between 6pm and 8am and employing parking wardens eats into parking revenues. Using cheaper parking in other centres disregards the extra time and costs driving to them.
The sole argument for cheap parking is to encourage people who can't (not always) be bothered to use our excellent Park and Ride services, free for retired folk, is to get people into the city centre. Do those who criticise the service ever use it?
Many Brits are too tightfisted to pay a few pounds parking and think nothing of squandering it on Lotto cards. We have a culture where few will walk anywhere and think it is some sort of God given right to deposit 1.0-1.5 tons of steel for next to nothing in the city centre.
However if free parking is what it takes to keep Salisbury businesses going now then so be it but please stop reciting the tired mantra that Salisbury parking charges are too high and the Park and Ride, one of the few reliable bus services in the city, is a complete waste of money.
Nigel Walsh
Firsdown
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