There are a small number of petitions floating around to try to persuade the county council to reduce car parking charges in town. The petitioner cites the recently announced reductions in Dinbych. Dinbych's discounts, from September 1st, are subsidised by the town council. Where is Rhuthun/Ruthin's town council on this point?
The truth of the matter is that footfall in Rhuthun is holding up. This is not the case in Dinbych. I do wonder, however, whether Dinbych's problems are simply because of the town itself rather than car parking charges. Although unit vacancy rates in Dinbych are now considerably better than 18 months ago, it has to be said that the town centre actually offers residents and visitors very little these days. Things are much better in Rhuthun.
The owner of Dinbych's retro-sweet shop and American diner has squarely blamed parking charges as to why both his two businesses recently closed. It seems this had nothing to do with the high prices charged in his diner. That the owner is planning an American diner in Chester indicates that Dinbych's population cannot support such a venture. His other offer was the specialist and rather shaky business model that relies on old-fashioned perceived-as-unhealthy sugar confectionary, a segment with static growth in a market dominated by big brand tablet chocolate bars available widely elsewhere.
There are rumours that up to five businesses are about to close in Dinbych. It will be interesting to see whether anything will change when car parking's reduced: we'd wager not.
Rhuthun's car parking was subsidised from 2011 to March 2016. Lifting the subsidy resulted in an increase far in excess of that elsewhere, as Rhuthun's rates overtook other towns to the new increased rate across the county. It's interesting, in spite of this, that Rhuthun has been largely silent on car parking. Till Dinbych's changes.
Yesterday, while waling along Dog Lane, a man trying to feed the car park meter asked whether I had two 50ps for his £1. He was from England. I couldn't help him but I did ask whether he felt the £1.50 charge he was proposing to pay for three hours was steep. In his experience, he said it "wasn't too bad" compared to other towns. Given no one relishes spending on car parking, I interpreted "not too bad" to mean "reasonable" or even "fairly good".
The point of this story is that visitors to town will not be deterred by higher parking charges. Residents may be but, given Rhuthun's footfall, I wonder whether they really are.
Copy of the petition from the Health Food Store. Nowhere on it does the petitioner offer a solution to where the council will fund the reduction because that isn't so easy...
The truth of the matter is that footfall in Rhuthun is holding up. This is not the case in Dinbych. I do wonder, however, whether Dinbych's problems are simply because of the town itself rather than car parking charges. Although unit vacancy rates in Dinbych are now considerably better than 18 months ago, it has to be said that the town centre actually offers residents and visitors very little these days. Things are much better in Rhuthun.
The owner of Dinbych's retro-sweet shop and American diner has squarely blamed parking charges as to why both his two businesses recently closed. It seems this had nothing to do with the high prices charged in his diner. That the owner is planning an American diner in Chester indicates that Dinbych's population cannot support such a venture. His other offer was the specialist and rather shaky business model that relies on old-fashioned perceived-as-unhealthy sugar confectionary, a segment with static growth in a market dominated by big brand tablet chocolate bars available widely elsewhere.
Plackard of July 2016 inside the recently closed Silk's retro sweet shop, Dinbych
There are rumours that up to five businesses are about to close in Dinbych. It will be interesting to see whether anything will change when car parking's reduced: we'd wager not.
Rhuthun's car parking was subsidised from 2011 to March 2016. Lifting the subsidy resulted in an increase far in excess of that elsewhere, as Rhuthun's rates overtook other towns to the new increased rate across the county. It's interesting, in spite of this, that Rhuthun has been largely silent on car parking. Till Dinbych's changes.
Yesterday, while waling along Dog Lane, a man trying to feed the car park meter asked whether I had two 50ps for his £1. He was from England. I couldn't help him but I did ask whether he felt the £1.50 charge he was proposing to pay for three hours was steep. In his experience, he said it "wasn't too bad" compared to other towns. Given no one relishes spending on car parking, I interpreted "not too bad" to mean "reasonable" or even "fairly good".
The point of this story is that visitors to town will not be deterred by higher parking charges. Residents may be but, given Rhuthun's footfall, I wonder whether they really are.