Parking fees are killing us (From Warrington Guardian)

Parking fees are killing us

SHOPKEEPERS in Biddulph have blamed a decline in their trade on the introduction of car parking charges.

Biddulph town administrator Kate Thacker was asked to survey the town's retailers to assess the impact of parking charges on trade.

Around 60 retailers in the town were sent a questionnaire asking whether business had been improved, adversely affected or unaffected by the parking charges.

Every response Mrs Thacker has received said business had been adversely affected by the charges, and the majority reported a 10 to 15 per cent drop in turnover.

One business said its turnover had fallen by a quarter since the charges were introduced, and another had raised its prices to cope with falling customer numbers.

Mrs Thacker said: "Not one response said business has been improved or unaffected.

"They all said the charges have been detrimental to business and turnover.

"We had been accused of not conducting any proper research, but this clearly shows the negative impact of the charges on the town."

Biddulph Town Council is to use the survey results to support its fight against the parking charges.

Its campaign to scrap the charges suffered a setback on Saturday when Staffordshire Moorlands District Council rejected its request to suspend the charges for four years to allow the town's regeneration to take effect.

Town councillors had written to the district council asking for the charges to be suspended, and to request the town council be returned control of the car parks.

Cllr Kevin Jackson presented the proposal for the car parks to be put back under town council control to Saturday's meeting, and the proposal is being forwarded to a council cabinet meeting in April.

The town council would scrap the charges and pay for the upkeep of the car parks by levying an annual charge of £5 per household.

Town Mayor Madelaine Lovatt said: "It gives me no pleasure that they've agreed to put our request before the cabinet, because they should have listened to us before.

"We had a 10,000-name petition against the charges, and a referendum in which 2,000 people voted against and only 20 voted in favour.

"They should have listened before hardship and expense was caused to residents, visitors and traders."