One-hour free parking will continue and improvements to public toilets are being planned as part of efforts to support Westbury’s town centre.
At a meeting of Westbury Town Council on Monday 7th July, councillors debated how best to approach both issues, agreeing to continue one-hour free parking for another year and to take over the leases of the town centre public toilets at Warminster Road and the High Street car parks.
On free parking, it was decided to continue one-hour free car parking across the High Street, Warminster Road and Westfield House car parks for the year 2025-26, at a cost of £31,330 which is paid to Wiltshire Council, who own the car parks.
However, councillors said wider work would need to be done to boost business in the town.
Councillor Paulina Ulatowska said, “This [maintaining free parking] won’t be the golden bullet to drive people to Westbury’s High Street.”
Councillor Mike Sutton, who abstained from the vote, added, “The planet is on its last legs. It seems perverse we are spending £31,000 on supporting the motorcar which is one of the world’s biggest polluters. As a town council, we need to start thinking of the bigger picture.”
Westbury Town Council had asked Wiltshire Council if it might be possible to only have free parking in one car park in town in a bid to save money, but the local authority said this wouldn’t be possible.
Meanwhile, on the topic of public toilets in Westbury, following the recent closure of the High Street car park toilets due to their “fragile” state, Cllr Sutton said the facilities “can’t get up and running soon enough.”
He said, “I think the public toilets are ten times more beneficial to the wealth of the high street than car parks will be.”
Councillors agreed to take on 125-year leases from Wiltshire Council for the public toilets at Warminster Road and the High Street car parks, which means the town council can carry out refurbishment work to future-proof them.
The meeting heard that future refurbishment work on the toilets will cost up to £250,000 and, before they deteriorated and reached their current unusable state, around 44,000 people per year would use them.
Councillor Gordon King added, “Toilets draw people into the town, they like the fact they can walk into town and use the facilities.”
