PROPOSALS to introduce weekend and evening parking charges across Wokingham Borough has been met with strong criticism from one of the town councils.
Woodley Town Council issued a statement this morning (Friday) claiming that the proposed charges would have a ‘detrimental impact on the footfall in the town centre’, and would lead to less people using the town’s facilities, such as the Oakwood Centre, in Headley Road.
Wokingham Borough Council announced earlier this month that it is considering introducing a £1 charge for visitors using the borough’s car parks outside of normal hours.
The Council said: “At a meeting on 19 January 2016 the Woodley Town Council Community Services Committee considered the proposal from Wokingham Borough council to introduce evening and weekend parking charges in the borough council’s car parks. The Woodley town centre car parks currently have free parking after 6pm and all day on Sundays.
“In recent years the Woodley Town Centre Management Initiative (WTCMI) has been working hard to attract visitors to the town centre on Sundays and has been successful in increasing Sunday trade. Evening use of the town centre has also increased with the recent openings of a bar and a restaurant, bringing the town centre to life and reducing the incidences of antisocial behaviour. The regeneration is continuing with plans to improve the northern end of the town centre, which will take place later this year, to further encourage a night-time economy.
“Woodley Town Council’s Oakwood Centre, opposite the Headley Road car park, provides a social facility for the residents of Woodley and is used by local community clubs and as a venue for a variety of activities in the evening. The Centre is also the home of Woodley Theatre. Woodley Town Council is promoting the use of the Oakwood Centre to increase the recreational facilities available to local residents and make it a vibrant social hub adjacent to the town centre.
“Woodley Town Council believes that the introduction of evening and Sunday parking charges in the town centre car parks would have a detrimental impact on the footfall in the town centre and at the Oakwood Centre. There would be fewer visitors to the town centre on Sundays, which would adversely affect retailers, and fewer visitors in the evening would affect business in the bar and restaurant.
“People would be less likely to visit the Oakwood Centre in the evenings if they had to pay for parking, leading to reduced attendance at clubs and courses and the possibility that some of these would no longer be offered. Visitors to the theatre at the Oakwood Centre would have to pay to park and cast members would have to pay parking charges every time they attended a rehearsal, which would amount to a considerable sum.
“Woodley Town Council is strongly opposed to the introduction of evening and Sunday charges in the Woodley town centre car parks. However, the Town Council appreciates that Wokingham Borough Council needs to increase revenue from its car parks and would therefore suggest that it would be possible to achieve this by raising the daytime 1 hour parking rate from 70p to 80p. Although this would be a preferable solution to increasing revenue from the Woodley town centre car parks, it would not necessarily be an appropriate solution in the borough’s other car parks.
“Woodley Town Council also suggests that Wokingham Borough Council consider investing the additional revenue raised from the Woodley car parks back into these car parks with the introduction of ‘pay on exit’ charging and vehicle number plate recognition technology. These measures would prevent people parking without paying and would not require policing and are therefore likely to raise further income towards the costs of installing this technology.”
The WTCMI has also slammed the proposals, urging the Borough Council to rethink the plans and look for alternative ways to increase the car parks revenue.
In a statement released today, the group said: “The WTCMI is strongly opposed to the introduction of evening and Sunday charges in the Woodley Town Centre car parks.
“We understand however, that Wokingham Borough Council needs to increase its car parks revenue, we therefore suggest that it would be best to achieve this by raising the daytime one-hour parking rate from 70p possibly to 80p. The current charges have not been increased for about eight years and we feel this option would be less unpopular overall.
“It also makes it a quantifiable & measurable increase with the data we have. The evening and Sunday revenue cannot be measured, only vaguely estimated but we can be sure that they will generate more labour cost to monitor the car parks efficiently.”
