Evening car parking

Your views on traffic and parking in the town
Enoughofthat
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed 07 Apr 2010 12:00 am

Re: Evening car parking

Post by Enoughofthat »

What about the Not For Profit clubs and societies and those who put on events in the evening and night time for your entertainment?

Why should the ordinary people of Ware subsidise my night out?

If I choose to drive to a venue I must accept the responsibility for parking my car. Whether the business model of the venue is for profit or not is irrelevant.

If the venue adopts a marketing strategy of offering free parking for patrons, then it is that venue operator that should bear the cost or pass that cost on to its patrons.

Either businesses operate on free market principles or doesn't, They can't have it both ways.
Aardvaark
Posts: 84
Joined: Sat 31 Mar 2007 12:00 am

Re: Evening car parking

Post by Aardvaark »

We've just received our Council Rates Notification for 2014-15 and with it the Spring 2014 copy of Link. The proposed car park changes are on page 7. Re the free half hour - I think most people thought this would be ideal for getting a paper, pint of milk, dropping off dry cleaning, going to the Bank etc. However it says that the proposals apply to all short stay tariffs, so motorists paying for an hour will get 90 minutes total at no extra cost and so on. So actually no free half hour at all. Pay the minumum hour charge and you can stay for one and half hours. The Council Executive member says this will give an economic boost for shops and business as it will give people extra time to shop, have lunch and enjoy a coffee. I guess they aren't on a max hour's break for lunch then!
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Steve
Posts: 475
Joined: Fri 08 Nov 2013 5:39 pm
Location: Hertford

Re: Evening car parking

Post by Steve »

Aardvaark wrote:We've just received our Council Rates Notification for 2014-15 and with it the Spring 2014 copy of Link. The proposed car park changes are on page 7. Re the free half hour - I think most people thought this would be ideal for getting a paper, pint of milk, dropping off dry cleaning, going to the Bank etc. However it says that the proposals apply to all short stay tariffs, so motorists paying for an hour will get 90 minutes total at no extra cost and so on. So actually no free half hour at all. Pay the minumum hour charge and you can stay for one and half hours. The Council Executive member says this will give an economic boost for shops and business as it will give people extra time to shop, have lunch and enjoy a coffee. I guess they aren't on a max hour's break for lunch then!
You may have misintepreted this [admittedly, badly worded] article. If you park for 30 minutes in any of the car parks, it will cost you nothing. The hour thereafter is charged at 80p, meaning that a 90 minute stay that was previously £1.50 will now only cost 80p.
Aardvaark
Posts: 84
Joined: Sat 31 Mar 2007 12:00 am

Re: Evening car parking

Post by Aardvaark »

I do hope it's just that they have worded it badly. I don't think I've misinterpreted anything - there is no mention of any free 30 minutes in this article in Link, except as an extension to an existing short stay paid tariff. I've tried looking on EHDC website without success. The only mention I've seen of a free 30 minutes without any charge to enable very short stay parking was in The Mercury article, so maybe that's why I'm concerned.
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Steve
Posts: 475
Joined: Fri 08 Nov 2013 5:39 pm
Location: Hertford

Re: Evening car parking

Post by Steve »

Aardvaark wrote:I do hope it's just that they have worded it badly. I don't think I've misinterpreted anything - there is no mention of any free 30 minutes in this article in Link, except as an extension to an existing short stay paid tariff. I've tried looking on EHDC website without success. The only mention I've seen of a free 30 minutes without any charge to enable very short stay parking was in The Mercury article, so maybe that's why I'm concerned.
You will find a list of the proposed tarifs here ...

http://online.eastherts.gov.uk/moderngo ... ariffs.pdf

You will find the background paper here ...

http://online.eastherts.gov.uk/moderngo ... harges.pdf

The relevant paragraph is 2.3.2:

"A new policy of introducing a 30 minute free parking period is proposed by the Executive Member for Economic Development within our main towns of Hertford, Bishop’s Stortford and Ware in order to support the convenience of parking for short visits. "
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JudieT
Posts: 71
Joined: Wed 24 Aug 2005 12:00 am
Location: Ware

Re: Evening car parking

Post by JudieT »

Why can't they simply say then that the first half hour is free and if you want to park for longer then you have to pay. Simples!
It's too easy to muddy the waters and make a really ambiguous statement that no-one can understand and then when they start handing out parking tickets they can refer to a 'misinterpretation' of the facts.
My question is how on earth can they police this? Is a parking attendant going to time how long everyone parks for?
I'm personally quite tired of the argument for parking charges when you visit so many towns which don't charge for parking that are vibrant, full of shops and relaxed happy people and a pleasure to spend time in, as opposed to a stale, half empty high street with hardly any decent shops or people - where everyone's rushing back to their car because they're worried about how long they've parked for.
All this will do is make more people park on roads without lines and stop even more people coming to Ware to spend their money. IMHO it's a really daft policy. :roll:
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Steve
Posts: 475
Joined: Fri 08 Nov 2013 5:39 pm
Location: Hertford

Re: Evening car parking

Post by Steve »

JudieT wrote:My question is how on earth can they police this? Is a parking attendant going to time how long everyone parks for?
As I understand it, you'll still have to display a ticket, you just won't have to pay for it if you choose to park for only 30 minutes.
JudieT wrote:I'm personally quite tired of the argument for parking charges when you visit so many towns which don't charge for parking.
Can you name a couple of towns that don't charge for parking because I'm not aware of any?
The Masked Woler
Posts: 344
Joined: Wed 08 Jan 2014 11:52 am

Re: Evening car parking

Post by The Masked Woler »

Steve wrote:
JudieT wrote:My question is how on earth can they police this? Is a parking attendant going to time how long everyone parks for?
As I understand it, you'll still have to display a ticket, you just won't have to pay for it if you choose to park for only 30 minutes.
JudieT wrote:I'm personally quite tired of the argument for parking charges when you visit so many towns which don't charge for parking.
Can you name a couple of towns that don't charge for parking because I'm not aware of any?
Nor am I, in any case this plan will actually reduce parking charges during the day so won't that help the shops?

(Don't the parking attendants time people now, how else can they tell if you go over your allowed time)
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JudieT
Posts: 71
Joined: Wed 24 Aug 2005 12:00 am
Location: Ware

Re: Evening car parking

Post by JudieT »

Witney, Bolton, Fareham is free for locals as is Lyme Regis, Rochdale, Northampton, Daventry and that's just from a quick google
The Masked Woler
Posts: 344
Joined: Wed 08 Jan 2014 11:52 am

Re: Evening car parking

Post by The Masked Woler »

JudieT wrote:Witney, Bolton, Fareham is free for locals as is Lyme Regis, Rochdale, Northampton, Daventry and that's just from a quick google
But you said "when you visit so many towns which don't charge for parking that are vibrant, full of shops and relaxed happy people and a pleasure to spend time in,"

Have you visited them and are they?
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