Free Parking

A letter in Thursday’s Free Press from well-known town photographer Chris Birchall adds to the calls for free town centre car parking, in the face of Tesco competition in Rhuthun/Ruthin.

Birchall asks why the town can’t give the first hour’s parking free. He makes a good point but, of course, most parking other than for the whole day is presumably for a short period and making it free-of-charge is likely to affect council income substantially. To ask other budgets in the council to make up this shortfall would be unfair. Not to mention unfair on tax payers.

There is, however, a potential solution.

Ask traders to rebate the first hour (or even the first two), not the council. It’s win-win. The council’s income is safe. The principle of town centre car park charging continues. Funding for regular warden patrols continues. Town traders themselves are seen as encouraging and incentivising people into the town. The town and traders benefit.

How would this work?

• Each machine would issue two tickets.

• One the motorist must display in the vehicle.

• The other would act as a voucher to be taken to a participating trader and, upon purchase of goods at or above a threshold level, there would be a rebate of one hour’s worth of parking (minimum parking in Rhuthun is 40p for up to one hour).

• Each shop would return its vouchers to a central point, such as the Chamber of Trade, the town centre manageress or town council who, in turn, would ensure that the “cost” of the scheme is shared among all members equitably, that no one business is being asked to shoulder too much of the burden.

• Businesses offering free parking – e.g. Bridge Services, Trefor Jones, Somerfield, Co-op, Tesco – would be ineligible to join the scheme, though smaller businesses might be permitted.

Shop keepers may feel that this simply transfers the burden from council to traders, that they would subsidise the council. The counter argument is that if the traders are positive about increasing trade in the face of Tesco, they should be prepared to take some responsibility themselves.