‘Why should Welshpool residents pay for visitors to park for free?’
Welshpool Town Council debated the issue at its monthly meeting this week, with a proposal on the table to offer free parking at Church Street Car Park during the peak months of April-September at a potential cost of nearly £6,000 plus VAT to the budget.
Town Clerk Richard Williams said the proposal was in response to concerns from both residents and businesses that footfall to the town centre was dropping, despite the wealth of free parking available for two-and-a-half hours at Morrisons, Tesco and Aldi.
He proposed that the £6,000+ that would be paid to compensate Powys County Council for loss of income could be met in some part by donations made at the Tourist Information Centre or online via a QR code.
But Cllr Richard Church voiced his opposition to the proposal, which could cost a Band D property an extra £2.13 a year if approved.
“What it is essentially asking Welshpool tax payers to do is to pay for other people, many of whom don’t live in Welshpool, to park in their town,” said Cllr Church.
“We need to keep in mind that probably one third of households in Welshpool don’t own a car at all, and they will pay for this on their council tax.
“Many more do own a car but live within close proximity of the town and therefore walk into town or get the bus. And, therefore what we are looking at is people living outside of Welshpool in other parts of Powys, or other visitors, to have free parking paid for by the residents of Welshpool.
“I can’t accept that that’s right. It would be very difficult to identify people who are coming into Welshpool, especially because there is free parking. Because many of them would have come in anyway and are now getting a free space. I don’t think the public purse should be subsidising parking in our car parks.”
The situation could also just see those who normally park at the supermarkets to come into town simply parking in Church Street instead, again not improving footfall.
Cllr Morag Bailey said that Powys County Council should be held to account for their high car parking charges but she urged fellow councillors to delay a decision until January so that their free Saturday parking initiative in the run-up to Christmas can be evaluated.
Councillors were in favour of waiting until January to make their decision with Cllr Bill Rowell floating the idea that surrounding community councils could be asked to contribute towards the coast because “it will benefit their people more than people in Welshpool”.
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