New charges for car parks in Stockton Heath and Lymm (From Warrington Guardian)

And so the council continues in its relentless attempts to kill independent traders throughout Warrington.

Too true, grey_man.

Parking is seen as a cash cow by WBC; what's wrong with raising the odd pound or two each time from people who choose to park rather than use public transport or walk? It's only a pound or two, maybe even only an extra 50p. But what they choose to ignore is that drivers will make a positive decision in favour of avoiding even a small charge which previously they weren't needed to pay. To the driver, avoiding the payment becomes a way of saving money, something which everyone tries to do. So they drive to a large store away from the street/village/town centre where parking is free- and so they're still making the saving, right?- taking their 50p plus the independent trader's takings with them. To the local trader, however, it becomes yet another one individual out of the maybe fifteen to twenty customers they can attract each day, reducing their profit margin and therefore their ability to pay the ever-rising rates and local taxes. And so the individual tradespeople consider their future and the likelihood of them managing to survive the next round of cuts (which affect them and their customers), the higher rates they have to pay and so on. And one by one, they have to shut up shop because no one in WBC has seen the bigger picture.

And all for the odd extra 50p from a driver who quite justifiably sees NOT paying the parking charge as a way of saving money.

What a way to do business, WBC. How forward-thinking.

They've got car parks in Lymm?
I thought people just stopped on the High St, got out and walked off...

They have one car park in lymm, I saw it once, EMPTY.

WBC see motorists as cash cows, Car parks, On street parking meters, Residents parking permits etc etc etc, Whilst council officials get free or subsidised parking,
Then they just cant get it into their thick skulls why people shop out of town leaving half the shops in bridge street empty,

This is easy to fix. People should just boycott the car parks in Lymm and Stockton Heath completely for a month or so. The council will collect no money at all but will probably still have to pay whoever has the contract to collect the money. There is more than adequate free parking in Stockton Heath if you are prepared to walk for 7 or 8 minutes. Its about time people started to take ownership of this council - they are wasting our money.