PRESS RELEASE: 4 FEBRUARY 2008                                                       

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND TOWN CENTRE GROUP ASK COUNCILLORS TO INTRODUCE PARKING "SPECIAL OFFERS" INSTEAD OF MORE INCREASES

Weymouth & Portland Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Tourism has written to all 36 borough councillors asking they "be more creative than just putting-up parking charges for the umpteenth year."

The Chamber points to "savage" increases in Winter charges imposed in November- £1 to £2.50 for two hours at the Pavilion car park, while onstreet parking more than doubled from 60p to £1.30 an hour.

The Chamber and the associated Weymouth Town Centre Group calls for a much more creative approach to be taken. WTCG has suggested that Mondays and Tuesdays in say November, January and February should be either half price, free or at a nominal rate of say 10p or 20p. They say "special prices would encourage shoppers and day visitors into Weymouth when the town is very quiet and can only be good. Putting up charges at near empty car parks is not sensible!"

Other suggestions for "special offers" include paying for one hour and getting another free on Monday to Thursday in Winter. Another idea is a set £1 all day on Monday to Thursday in one month- perhaps April- as an experiment. "Such initiatives could help fill currently empty parking places and result in extra revenue for the Borough Council as well as more trade for Weymouth & Portland."

The Chamber of Commerce and Weymouth Town Centre Group are pushing the council to introduce pay-on-exit at least one central car park by this autumn. "By keep agreeing ‘it can't be done this year,' pay-on-exit continues to slide down the agenda well out of sight," says the letter to councillors from Chamber secretary Michel Hooper-Immins.

They advocate research into the Ringo system- successfully used at the Bournemouth International Centre- where pay-on-display tickets can be extended by a mobile phone call. That system could be applied to all car parks in the borough.

Parking charges will be considered by the Management Committee tomorrow [Tuesday] morning and decided by the full council later in the month. Proposals to introduce pay-on-display around the harbourside and in Fortuneswell- also opposed by the Chamber and the TCG- will not now be considered by the Management Committee, but by the Planning & Traffic Committee on Wednesday 5 March.

THIS IS THE FULL TEXT OF THE LETTER SENT TO BOROUGH COUNCILLORS

Dear Councillor

The Borough Council's proposals to again increase car park and onstreet charges from April 2008 comes at a time when the effect of doubling some of the Winter charges from 1 November is still not clear. November was a bad trading month with near empty car parks and near empty onstreet parking bays. Much of December was also poor, January was very quiet. Parking charges are an important element in encouraging people to come to and shop in Weymouth, although not the only element in the fairly obvious downturn of trade.

The weather was not good for much of the summer. Increasing mortgages, soaring utilities and high inflation mean many people [local and visitors] have noticeably less money in their pockets. Internet shopping is now up to 14% of all UK purchases. The Chamber is unable to do anything about those factors, but we can encourage councillors to be more creative than just putting-up parking charges for the umpteenth year! One of the most frequent complaints from holidaymakers is about the high cost of parking and a significant number of local people already travel to other towns and out-of-town stores.

Weymouth & Portland Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Tourism:

[1/2] It is difficult contemplating yet another increase, when the doubling of some Winter charges only took effect on 1 November 2007. Some of these Winter increases were quite savage- £1 to £2.50 for two hours at the Pavilion car park; onstreet parking more than doubled from 60p to £1.30 an hour. The Chamber believes that Winter parking charges should be about half Summer rates. There has been steady [and deliberate] erosion of this differential in the last few years. The proposals to charge less on Sundays at the Swannery and Portland Bill were interesting, but deleted by the Management Committee because they could lead to a reduction in income. Yet continually putting up charges at near empty car parks is not sensible! The Sunday idea at least showed a glimmer of thought that some reductions could encourage more visitors. Looking at Portland Bill for example, last year's 60p Winter charge has been nearly trebled to £1.50. One Sunday in mid December, there were only 15 cars in Portland Bill car park; the Pavilion car park had five! The Chamber will press for the restoration of Winter charges on seven days a week, about half the Summer rates, from October to March.

[3] *** The Chamber vociferously opposed the introduction of pay-and-display along Custom House Quay, Commercial Road and Trinity Road when they were last proposed three years ago. In installing pay-and-display in January 2003, the Council gave a commitment that there would always be some free one-hour spaces. Councillors and officers said the intention was not to cover every street with pay-and-display. These one hour spaces give local people the opportunity to go into town for a short shopping trip or to visit a bank or agency. Locals benefit because holidaymakers will inevitably be staying longer and so this proposal hits directly at local people. Charging will drive more locals to other towns or to out-of-town supermarkets like Asda and Morrison. Neither does it make financial sense, as is quietly admitted in the Officer's report, with a cost of £91,000 and an estimated take of only £80,000. Revenue will be much limited by the parallel proposal- which the Chamber also opposes- to allow permitholders to park there 24 hours a day. The Chamber will strongly oppose this unpopular extension of pay-and-display.

[4] *** Introducing charges at Fortuneswell's overcrowded car parks could further disadvantage shopping in that area, whereas the need is to make it easier to park and shop in Fortuneswell. Introducing parking charges will not arrest the decline of trade. Given the high concentration of houses without any car space around much of Underhill, the high number of residents' permits that would have to be issued will make the idea difficult anyway.

[5/6] The Chamber has for many years championed pay-on-exit, a concept which seems to have been postponed for several years! The excellent idea of Ringo- telephoning to extend pay-on-display tickets- is being used to defer the principle of pay-on-exit. The Chamber will press the Management Committee to insist on a proper costing of Ringo and pay-on-exit for at least one town centre car park, with a target of changing over in Autumn 2008. By keep agreeing "it can't be done this year," pay-on-exit continues to slide down the agenda well out of sight. Ringo- said to cost only £17,000 to set-up- could presumably apply to all car parks in the borough eventually.

[7] George Afedakis and the Weymouth Town Centre Group has discussed parking charges in detail on many occasions. It feels a much more creative approach needs to be taken. For example, WTCG has suggested that Mondays and Tuesdays in say November, January and February should be either half price, free or at a nominal rate of say 10p/20p. Since then of course some winter charges have doubled! Special prices would encourage shoppers and day visitors into Weymouth when the town is very quiet and can only be good. At the moment, Weymouth has a reputation for high car parking charges- and razor-sharp enforcement. An alternative sensible suggestion for Monday to Thursday in Winter is pay for one hour and get another free. We have proposed a set £1 all day charge Monday to Thursday as an experiment for a set month- say April. Such initiatives could help fill currently empty parking places and result in extra revenue for the Borough Council as well as more trade for Weymouth & Portland.

[8] WPCCIT President Andy Cooke highlighted the need at the Scrutiny Committee for a fallback plan if the doubled Winter parking charges were seen to have a detrimental effect on trade in the town. No mention is made of that point in the proposals- only more increases which will simply compound the existing problems.

[9] In Bournemouth [£1 to £1.60 for two hours,] all parking is free between 10pm and 8am, which saves a considerable sum in enforcement and unsocial hours payments to wardens. Poole [£1.30 for two hours] offers free parking on Sundays from 10.30am to 4.30pm. The Poole Town Centre Manager says experience shows that free parking is a real attraction to shoppers. Such a "good news" story could attract a lot of extra visitors to the borough, with a big saving on parking wardens' unsocial hours and enforcement costs.

The Chamber believes that charging all disabled [blue badge] drivers is wrong. In any event, all that will achieve is to encourage yet more disabled drivers to park on double yellow lines all over town, as they are legally allowed to do for four hours. It makes the whole reasoning behind yellow lines quite pointless. Disabled drivers deserve every advantage and help, charging them should not be considered.

The derisory 50p a day paid by council staff to park needs to be much increased. The "Green Travel Plan" is something of a fiction otherwise. £10 a week would make a lot of difference. Why should staff fees be ringfenced for "green travel improvements" instead of being applied to general funds?

Concerned that the need for increasing parking revenue is said to be due to the shortfall in the countrywide free bus concessions which begins in April 2008, the Chamber wrote to Jim Knight MP to ask why the new countrywide free concessionary travel scheme is not being fully funded by Government and secondly, if he will ask the Secretary of State to increase the amount of the Weymouth & Portland Borough Council grant to £758,000, estimated to be the cost of providing the services.

In his response, Jim Knight MP says:  Encouraging trade and small business is vitally important for the local economy. My hope would be that councillors on Weymouth and Portland Borough Council take the needs of local business very seriously when voting on the issue of parking charges.

In terms of central government funding, Weymouth and Portland has in general received generous settlements over the past five years. Clearly it is up to elected councillors to decide the council's spending priorities. I will continue to make the case for Weymouth and Portland, and South Dorset as whole, inside Government and work for more money and resources to come our way in the years ahead. We have made progress, but clearly more needs to be done.

In terms of funding the [concessionary bus] scheme nationally, an additional £212m will be provided by special grant for 2008/9, followed by £217m for 2009/10 and £223m for 2010/11. This is in addition to the funding that Government provides each year, through the formula grant process, for the existing statutory minimum concession of free off-peak local bus travel. Government is confident this additional funding is sufficient to meet the total cost to local authorities on a national basis.

Please consider the Chamber's views very seriously when these issues are debated at the Management Committee, at full council and the Planning & Traffic Committee.