To think Free Parking is the answer to revive our town centres?

[Jumell]

I’ve been thinking a bit about this lately.

Whenever I thought about going to the city centre where I used to live, to shop/browse etc - the main thing that would stop me going was the thought of paying for parking - I’d just think - ‘nah’ - and not bother going in.

i think that if the Govt took the initiative to scrap all charges from car parking companies - NCP/Councils etc etc in town centres / high streets - it would massively revive these shopping centres that we all knew and loved?

Oh yes I hadn't thought of that. I bet everyone taking the train for a day trip would block the town too.

@LigamentBandy I would actually like that if it's done properly.
I like the "plaza" type places.

I wouldn’t go into my local town centre if they provided valet parking and serviced and MOT’d my car while I was there. It’s a shit hole full of boarded up units, overpriced charity shops full of tat and bad coffee shops. Not a single shop there to make it worthwhile.

Adding to what @Weyohweyoh said - if it was free wouldn't people just park there indefinitely? I'd drive to town on a night out and leave my car there for 24 hours if it was free. Or just park and spend 6 hours browsing about, sat on the beach etc etc

I'm happy to pay for a well maintained car park. I think the shop rents are more of an issue. I would love to have more independent shops but they all close down after a few months due to the high rents and lack of customers.

That's cheap! Nottingham city centre cost us £7.50 for just over 3 hours 😱

some Derbyshire boroughs free parking on Saturdays in December which is good, but there's free parking for 3 hours in Tesco and asda already so.not sure how much difference it makes!

I strongly disagree. As a disabled pedestrian the number of cars about are hugely off putting.

It would just be used by commuters going to work here and would make the situation worse.

It can be free for a limited time.

Our town has 3 hours free parking - which is plenty for most people most of the time. Means you can spend a decent amount of time there, stops the workers blocking spaces all day etc

You can pay for longer as well but the town is small and 3 Hours is plenty

Like what?

The filled pavements?

In the UK city center pavements were designed as walk ways. There's nothing more I love as a mobility scooter user is random penned in tables and chairs filling my/the right of way.

Not if it was limited.

Free parking is unrealistic. Cheaper parking would be better. I took a teenager to the cinema recently (special treat) Parking for the duration of the film plus 15 mIn sprint either way was £7.50. We deliberately arrived at the end of the trailers to cut down on parking

There's not a direct bus, but we could have parked on the outskirts of town, then paid £2 bus fare each in each direction - £8. On-street parking would have been £9 ish. Park and Ride £6 but very long waits between buses in the evening.

I'm sure that sounds cheap if you're in London, but as a low-income lone parent it was a big chunk of extra £. Certainly can't do it mire than once or twice a year and not for random shopping trip/browsing/cafes. It's a shame because that money, or even half of it, would have been better spent with a small business.

No it doesn't work. I live in a town where all of the parking is free, and the town centre is a desolate wasteland of empty shops, charity shops and vape shops.

@LigamentBandy you misunderstand me. I don't mean the seating etc that would be blocking access for pedestrians, mobility scooters, wheelchairs, prams etc.
But somewhere like a market square that's a large open space.
That's what I meant by "done properly".

Our nearest towns do have free parking but it doesn’t particularly make us visit more we just go when we need to

We are having car parking charges imposed upon my small local town from January despite almost 100% local opposition to it. . To add insult to injury, despite our air quality being fine, they are imposing emissions based charging too so my elderly car will be charged at the top rate. I can't afford to replace it at the moment.

I will certainly be visiting much less often

B&NES seems determined to kill off the small satellite shopping centres.

I'm not paying more tax so people can park for free to go and spend money.

We need to get people out of supermarkets, if every town centre had a good quality, cheap, food market (not a shit, overpriced farmers market) people would naturally be drawn to the centre. A good grocer, butcher, fishmonger, cheese stall and baker would get people back. Councils could reduce rates for stalls as an initiative to kick start it.

The government have better things to do than get involved with the cesspits that are local councils. Parking won't change the state of the streets and pavements.

It wouldn't change my habits as I like staying dry and reasonably warm and pothole free (and that's the pavements).

@Needmorelego the closest city to me it’s £8 for 3 hours which does put me off. I tend to shop as much as possible in my local town or at a designer outlet that’s a couple of junctions away. I won’t buy any gifts online at all this year and rarely do.

@Seekingstyle no thanks. I like the convenience of one shop for everything.
I'd prefer town centres to become more leisure activities based.

@ViciousCurrentBun ooof that is expensive 🙁

@Needmorelego but 99.9% seem to be randomly filling the pavement in my experience. Agree set up properly in a space that accommodates it, that would fine, but so far not sure I've come across that very often. ( In the UK)

But a well thought out market wouldn't be too different to a walk round Tesco.

I agree with you. Our town used to have the first hour free, then only 50p for an additional hour, which was perfect as it's a very small town.

They then took away the free hour and increased the hourly rate. Then they brought in machines where you have to insert your reg, so no more passing tickets onto cars entering, which really took away our lovely community feel. And then they have not only increased the charges, but they've also increased the hours from 9-5, free on Sunday's and BH's, to 7-7 daily, Sunday is now a fixed charge whether you're there for an hour or all day, and no more free BH's.

There has been uproar as our town centre has been suffering for years as it is and to be honest, it's not big enough to justify the new charges. They also took away one of the small free car parks and it's now the same as the main one.

It'll effect the small supermarket in the town centre, and the takeaways and restaurants.

We do usually walk into town, but often in the evenings we'd pop in after 5pm on the way home from somewhere or on Sundays, but not anymore.

My personal view is that it should be free for up to 3 hours, free all day Sunday's and BH's.

I've heard they will be taking the machines away soon and going APP only, which is causing another uproar as lots of our oldies don't use smartphones, and the APP charges an additional 15p that our council won't waiver (like some other councils do).

Honestly, I detest the councils and the decisions they make, which never benefit the constituents, only ever themselves.