WESTBURY is again getting a poor deal over car parking charges after a county-wide review by Wiltshire Council.
That’s the view of local councillors who say Westbury has been classed as a ‘market town’ and so will have to face charges on a par with other towns with more vibrant town centres.
Westbury Town Council had voiced concern that Westbury will be categorised for charges into band three, which is for market towns. Councillors say that Westbury should not be charged the same as other market towns which are more economically viable.
Councillor for Westbury West, Russell Hawker, who sits on the Westbury Town Council, as well as Wiltshire Council voiced concern over the banding at an area board meeting last week.
“In reality car parking charges need to be based on the strength of each economy,” he said. “One needs to get away from the notion of band three being just ‘market towns’.
“Westbury is one of those market towns that has a tremendously undersized retail centre compared to other similar sized towns. There are reasons for that, but basically you’re looking at two very near larger towns which suck customers out.
“What really matters is the strength of the economy and the value of the car parking spaces, I know it was a major point at the town council. This is the thrust of the argument to try and bring ourselves down into band four with lower charges.”
Traders and town councillors were already unhappy at interim changes which were made in July this year, when free parking in the town was reduced from two hours to one hour.
At the same time, Wiltshire Council has also undertaken a county-wide review of car parking due to a lack of consistency between former districts across the county.
The county council held a consultation about their proposals, and are now reporting their findings back to the local area boards. And they say that the results of their consultation has supported their proposals.
The initial findings of Wiltshire Council’s car parking consultation was brought to the Westbury Area Board meeting last week.
Wiltshire cllr Richard Gamble, portfolio holder for public transport, told the area board meeting that the consultation response was that the majority supported the concept of banding towns, while a small majority disagreed with the proposed bands.
Town clerk Keith Harvey and cllr David Jenkins, both spoke in support of Westbury traders. Keith Harvey said, “I’m currently visiting every retailer in the town with regard to what’s happening in Westbury over the Christmas period and what initially I intended to be a five minute visit is actually turning out to be a 20, 30 minute lecture, with each individual explaining to me the repercussion of the car parking charges.”
In Wiltshire Council’s review of car parking, around 600 people responded making over 5,000 comments.
Cllr Gamble told the area board meeting that there had been overwhelming support for identifying the economy as the most important objective of the strategy. The next highest support was for meeting residents’ needs for parking.
A large majority agreed that town and parish councils should be offered ‘buy back’ and car park management opportunities, while there was little enthusiasm for proposed Sunday parking charges.
Despite traders and shoppers expressing concern over the current car parking charges in the town – even suggesting a fall of up to 30% of turnover in business – the area board was told that only three responses from Westbury were received in the consultation.
However, cllr Gamble said that the responses they had received were “very good” and that he was sure that they had a “comprehensive” view of Westbury, given that the town council had been one of the respondents. He added that not all the written responses had been processed yet.
Now that Wiltshire Council’s car parking consultation has come to an end, a formal decision will be made by the council’s cabinet in December, with any changes being implemented in April 2011.
