WESTBURY Town Council has launched a campaign to challenge Wiltshire Council’s car parking charges, which have outraged traders and shoppers.
Since free one-hour parking was scrapped by Wiltshire Council in April last year, traders, shoppers, and councillors have protested at the detrimental effect the charges are having on the town. Now, the town council has launched a petition to challenge Wiltshire Council’s car parking policy and is asking the people of Westbury to show their support by signing it.
Cllr David Windess, mayor of Westbury said, “Something’s got to be done. The charges are really penalising the shops in the high street; we need to be encouraging shoppers, not driving them away. People are going to go places where they don’t have to pay £1.20 for two hours.
“We’re not going to let it go. We’ve got to fight for the people of Westbury, that’s what we’re elected to do, and let’s hope Wiltshire Council listens for a change.”
David Jenkins, town councillor and president of the Westbury Chamber of Commerce said, “Traders and residents are not happy with these charges. In these economic times perhaps people haven’t got so much money in their pockets and that’s a fair point. But at the end of the day businesses rely on their customers and need as many as they can get and car parking charges will no doubt deter people and stop them coming into Westbury for shopping.”
Show your support by
signing the petition
The petition is now available to sign in town centre shops – look for posters advertising the petition in their window. Signatures will be collected on the 27th of February, although the petition will remain open beyond that date. But councillors say they need the people of Westbury to support the petition by signing it as soon as possible. 455 signatures are needed in order for it to meet the required threshold to present it to Wiltshire Council, but the more signatures, the stronger the petition.
David Jenkins added, “What we’re trying to do is change a council policy, which is no mean feat. The key thing is to get good support from the local community to do this. If you haven’t got that, the petition will lose its impact.”
The future of the car parks
The petition challenges Wiltshire Council’s car parking policy and asks for Westbury to be moved from its current classification in band 3, along with towns such as Warminster, Devizes, Malmesbury and Marlborough, to band 4. This band would enable a town to take over management of local car parks as an alternative to the car parking charges levied by Wiltshire Council. Councillors have always believed that Westbury has been treated unfairly in its classification, given the limited economic strength of the town centre.
In the 2010 consultation on Wiltshire Council’s car parking charges, Westbury Town Council and Westbury Chamber of Commerce warned of “the disastrous effect of loss of free parking and increased charges would have on small market towns such as Westbury,” while proposing that Westbury should be placed in band 4.
David Windess explained, “When you consider the number of shops we’ve got, they’ve put us in a band of parking we shouldn’t be in. Typical Wiltshire Council – don’t listen to a word we say.”
Westbury Town Council has already tried to buy some of the spaces from Wiltshire Council, but with Wiltshire Council demanding £500 per space per annum on 25% of available spaces, the town council said such a sum was impossible.
David Jenkins said, “We need to put together a business model and negotiate with [Wiltshire] council what can be done. My view is and always has been that the car parks should be held locally, it’s just a question of sorting out the model.”
