Traders in Shrewsbury are planning to team up with another town to challenge the council’s parking charges.
Shrewsbury retailers group, Shop in the Loop will meet with Altrincham Town Centre Partnership, in Greater Manchester, to find out more about their cut price parking scheme, with a view to pressing for a similar scheme in Shrewsbury.
From July, car parking charges in Altrincham will be slashed to just 10p for one hour, 30p for two hours and 70p for three hours. All day parking in off-street car parks will be £3 with free Sunday parking on all council car parks and on-street pay and display areas.
Shropshire Council pushed its prices up in April, with the increases including upping the cost of parking on Sundays from £2.50 for a whole day to £3.10 for two hours.
John Hall from Shop in the Loop confirmed that Shrewsbury traders are looking to copy Altrincham’s charging scheme in the town centre. He said: “We will been in touch with the person who organised the scheme in Altrincham to talk to them about how it was implemented.
“It is a very interesting idea and we will take what we learn to Shropshire Council.”
At a special meeting of the Shop in the Loop group last week, retailers overwhelmingly blamed increased parking fee charges for lack of trade and reduced visitor numbers in the town centre.
Meanwhile, calls were made this week for Shropshire Council to publicise figures on visitor numbers to Shrewsbury since car parking charges went up.
Shrewsbury Town Council said the evidence was needed to see how the increased costs had affected trade, following concerns from business owners. Shrewsbury Business Chamber has also voiced concerns about the effect of parking charges on town centre trade.
Chairman, Peter Bettis said: “We want Shropshire Council to support a ‘pay on exit’ car parking scheme rather than the current ‘pay on entry’ which is putting a lot of people off.”
by Catherine Ferris