| Parking Charges |
| Martin | [url]http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/lancashire/preston/news/PRESTNEWS2.html[/url]
quote:
Car park charges will 'kill shops'
by Kate Cronin
SHOPPERS and motorists reacted angrily after it was revealed South Ribble, the only area in Lancashire to offer free parking, is considering introducing charges.
The borough's councillors have launched a major consultation into parking management and the council's car parking steering group plans to consult shoppers, residents and businesses before a decision is made next year.
Council chiefs hope the scheme will help fund improvements to the borough's 26 car parks as well as managing parking on nearby streets. Steering group members claim it is fair for car park users to meet the cost rather than paying for improvements with Council Tax funds.
Will this be another nail in the coffin for Leylands struggling shop keepers? Free parking is one of the few remaining advantages of living and shopping in the town. I think that Charging people to park in the town centre car parks will create problems elsewhere. |
| noel | I never found any charges down the west coast of France either, or double yellow lines.
On the Greek Islands it's even more laid back. |
| Spitfire | How do they arrive at a figure of 26 car parks? Hope they are not including the doctors on West Paddock! just one car parked on the road causes meyhem. |
| noel | It presumably includes the likes of Spar at Lostock Hall, it might as well be a pay and ride as some cars park there, their occupants get into someone elses car or catch a bus, to avoid the car park charges in Preston.
As a result the car park is full all day. Can't park anywhere. |
| LDunlop76 | Some of the worst places to park are hospitals. Arrive after 9.30 am at almost any hospital in the region (and I've been to most on post-grad courses, so I speak from personal experience) and you've no chance of a space. People are forced to park on grass verges or clog local side streets - bet that goes down a treat with the hospital's neighbours!
I feel especially sorry for people visiting seriously ill relatives. The last thing people should have to worry about at a time like that is finding somewhere to park and then finding the change to feed the ticket machine. When my brother's life support was being turned off, my youngest brother couldn't find anywhere to park at Airedale Hospital and after touring the car parks twice over, left his car on the verge and hoped for the best. He came back to his car the next morning to find a snotty note under his wipers from the hospital parking chap to say they would let him off this time, but if his car was seen parked on the verge again, he'd be clamped. Just what you want to find when you've been up all night watching your brother die! |
| Thornley | I think all hospitals are deliberately designed with little or no car parking, as part of the waiting list initiative[;)] Chorley hospital used to have plenty of parking, so they built on it[:(] Preston Hospital is a nightmare for parking. When I worked there you were very luck to find a place to park, particularly on a late shift. |
| Thornley | Not only can you not park, you have to pay for the pleasure of not parking there :>( |
| Flagmarket | Is it becoming just too much trouble to take the bus ? Isn't there a wonderful bus service in Leyland (Fishwick), that can get you almost anywhere in the town once you aquaint yourself with the route and times ? Or am I behind the times and John Fishwick has moved on ? Certainly Preston has an adequate bus service to get one around...but are the Brits becoming just like their American counterparts, that is, becoming the Lone Ranger (Lone Rider) ? There is a price to pay for convienience, it's called parking fee, petrol tax, car tax, etc, etc. |
| noel | When my wife went to Chorley Hospital I took her in the car ( sorry Flagmarket she can't walk long distances.) and had to pay 3 times for parking. The car park fees are advertised as £1 for 24hours. What it doesn't say is it's also £1 per visit, so if you visit 3 times in the day, even if it's only to drop something off for 5 minutes, it's £1. To make matters worse it took me 15 minutes to find a parking place when I went to pick her up. I was on the point of crashing my car through the exit gate without paying. |
| noel | Further on flagmarkets comments, if I had to go to work in preston certainly I would catch the bus or train rather than pay car park fees ( provided the stop was within say 200 yards of work). But a price to pay for convenience tax?? Come on, that's the price for still having the ability to breath in this country, or am I being cynical.
The world is a much faster one these days, more's the pity and many people simply haven't got the time to hang around waiting for buses particularly in the sort of rural areas I used to live in in Wiltshire. One bus a week going to Warminster market.
I made a mistake of catching a bus to work just after I returned to Leyland. My place of work was L&B right next to Fishwick's garage. The bus was signed as "Fishwick's Garage." It took me 40 minutes to get there. a distance of less than 2 miles as the crow flies , going as it did down Croston Road ( please turn left up Golden Hill) straight across the lights at the junction, ending up going down towards Ulnes Walton/Dunkirk Lane, filling up along the way with dozens of young school kids with their foul language. Back through Leyland, on to the garage. I suppose the route was well meaning but not for me.
I could have walked it in 30 minutes if I'd known. |
| noel | A lot of people park on the car parks owned by Tesco/Kwik Save and the little complex around macdonalds/Aldi. I don't think these will be charged as they aren't owned by the council. But why should we be surprised that we are about to face another tax!!! |
| LDunlop76 | You get free parking in Leyland!!!!!!!![:0] You jammy lot!!!!
£1.20 for 3 hours in Wigan [V] |
| rocketmanjohn | There are no paying car parks here in Slidell, no parking meters either. Good innit.
John |
| LDunlop76 | quote:
Originally posted by Flagmarket
Is it becoming just too much trouble to take the bus ?
It's not that it's too much trouble, in Wigan it's that it's too dear! It costs me far less to go into Wigan town centre by car and pay parking and petrol than it would to go by bus. The last time I got the bus into Wigan it was £1.40 single. Add on the fact I usually take my daughter if I go shopping in Wigan and that ups the bus fare even further. Plus you don't have to queue in the cold and wet for the car! If the buses were cheap and ran every ten minutes, I would use them. As things stand at present - no way! |
| Flagmarket | Looking back many years ago when I lived in Walton le dale but worked at BAC, Warton, I used to take the bus to work, which meant waiting for the bus to arrive at the bus stop at the top of Cinnamon Hill, then changing to another bus at the old Preston Ribble bus station. Then the same situation to get back to W-L-D. Very time consuming to be sure, and I'm sure the bus fares were just as comparably expensive to todays prices. So I still believe that the automobile is just a case of convienience. Now if there were no other services to get to to where ever...well now that would be a different kettle of fish....convienience has its price...but I will agree with you in that the British do tend to over charge, or should I have said over tax ? |
| noel | I'm sure if we had to manage on public transport or bike or shoe leather we would.
I spent 5 years walking the 3 miles to work. Took 45 minutes but I thoroughly enjoyed it . However the world is a faster place these days and I know people who wouldn't be able to cope if they had no car. I wonder what the latest fuel tax increase will affect.
The cost of getting a litre of petrol onto the forecourt is 11p, adding the forecourt owners 5p profit makes it 16p, adding the governments 62p tax makes it daylight robbery. dooH niboR is alive and well and living in 11 Downing Street. |
| Martin | When my car was off the road a while ago, I started getting the bus from Glastonbury to Taunton each day for work. It was a long bus ride across the levels, about 45 minuntes but like most situations, you get used to it. I contemplated using the bus instead of my car but the cost factor meant that there wasn't much difference even with a weekly discounted ticket. If the fares were cheaper, I would have taken the bus for certain. |
| noel | I travelled for some time from Dilton Marsh in Wiltshire to Freshford near Limpley Stoke in Avon ( Somerset really!!!)to my place of work. It is a small rural track that leads eventually to Bath. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey and avoided traffic on the roads. The fair then was £1.60 return. I wonder what it would be now. |