BBC Wales reports that for 2013-14 Carmarthenshire Council made a profit in parking income of £795,000, this is record amount for the council and up from £487,000 for 2012-13. It now ranks just 4th behind Cardiff, Swansea and (marginally) behind Gwynedd.
In the past twelve months or so Carmarthenshire Council has imposed increased charges, shelved Christmas free parking and introduced evening and Sunday charges so next years figures are likely to be even higher. In addition, higher charges and greater restrictions also bump up the income from penalty charges. All in all, the town centres have suffered and the motorist has become a lucrative cash cow.
Back in April a Council motion for a six month, two hour free parking pilot in Llanelli to try and boost town centre trade had cross party support and was kicked into the long grass of the Executive Board for their deliberations. They are apparently still deliberating and will report back in the Autumn.
The vandalism of ticket machines in Cardigan in June led to a reported 40% increase in town centre trade for the couple of weeks that they were out of action, not something I'd advocate of course but clear evidence of the benefits of free parking.
With these newly published figures, surely there will be no excuse for Carmarthenshire and a full review of excessive charges will be treated with urgency and the free parking pilot implemented without delay and extended to cover the whole of the county.
On a completely unrelated note, and nothing to do with parking at all, Madaxeman's latest blog post is well worth a read;
What of Justice?
In the past twelve months or so Carmarthenshire Council has imposed increased charges, shelved Christmas free parking and introduced evening and Sunday charges so next years figures are likely to be even higher. In addition, higher charges and greater restrictions also bump up the income from penalty charges. All in all, the town centres have suffered and the motorist has become a lucrative cash cow.
Back in April a Council motion for a six month, two hour free parking pilot in Llanelli to try and boost town centre trade had cross party support and was kicked into the long grass of the Executive Board for their deliberations. They are apparently still deliberating and will report back in the Autumn.
The vandalism of ticket machines in Cardigan in June led to a reported 40% increase in town centre trade for the couple of weeks that they were out of action, not something I'd advocate of course but clear evidence of the benefits of free parking.
With these newly published figures, surely there will be no excuse for Carmarthenshire and a full review of excessive charges will be treated with urgency and the free parking pilot implemented without delay and extended to cover the whole of the county.
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On a completely unrelated note, and nothing to do with parking at all, Madaxeman's latest blog post is well worth a read;
What of Justice?
2 comments:
Parking in Llandeilo. Was the main parking area in Llandeilo gifted to the local residents for free parking? Although the Council maintains the car park they do not reimburse those unfortunate enough to lose money in faulty machines. ( this is a regular occurrence)When a request has been made for an Out of Order notice be placed on a machine when faulty the response is "we can't do that"
Disgraceful but nothing now will surprise me about CCC council.I wonder who made that decicion.
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