Park Car Park Charges

[Howard]

Yes - and they are a nightmare!   

Not my experience actually. In the early days of mobile payments, the infrastructure wasn't really up to much but these days it is highly reliable and very quick. As @ringi says, I rarely carry coins these days and use contactless for almost everything.

[Dave]

Most parking machines have many ways to pay by mobile phone these days.

Yes - and they are a nightmare!   

[amazon]

Yes, but that results it moving the car.....

so you should you want it for nothing .

[Howard]

Given I no longer use cash to pay for anything, it is enough to put me off going just due to finding change to use (I am not willing to pay a "fine" to use a credit card to pay for parking.)   Then there is the risk that the cafe does not have a table, and the carpark will not give me a refund......

Most parking machines have many ways to pay by mobile phone these days. Contactless readers and even the old fashioned way of paying by text message as long as you register your mobile number with the parking provider which takes two minutes.

[ringi]

If they dont have a table dont you go elswere .

Yes, but that results it moving the car.....

[amazon]

Given I no longer use cash to pay for anything, it is enough to put me off going just due to finding change to use (I am not willing to pay a "fine" to use a credit card to pay for parking.)   Then there is the risk that the cafe does not have a table, and the carpark will not give me a refund......

If they dont have a table dont you go elswere .

[ringi]

50p for two hours and paying for all day parking doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

Given I no longer use cash to pay for anything, it is enough to put me off going just due to finding change to use (I am not willing to pay a "fine" to use a credit card to pay for parking.)   Then there is the risk that the cafe does not have a table, and the carpark will not give me a refund......

[Dave]

The big danger is that is will hurt small businesses in Marple Br and Marple, and train usage.

I agree that introducing car park charges at the Purple Pakora may discourage people from using the trains, although the level of proposed charges appears to be modest - as far as I can tell from the council report the plan is to charge 20p per hour.  So someone parking all day would pay about £2, which is not excessive.  And if the car park spaces were to be marked, that would enable more cars to park there, which would be really helpful.

 

[mikes]

50p for two hours and paying for all day parking doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

[wheels]

Excellent points Andrew. All land has a value and it's perfectly proper for the owner of the land, the council in this case,  to seek to maximise income from that land. Geoff this seems an excellent proposal to me and a little opportunist to be objecting to it. 😙

[andrewbowden]

Apropos to nothing, but the planned charges are hardly extortionate.  And it has to be said that a factor in why people don't use public transport is the availability of cheap parking.  I took the kids to Stockport for some new shoes recently.  Would have cost us £9 by bus.  Parking was £1.80.  Doesn't encourage you to jump on a bus.   

Ultimately free parking is a subsidy to car drivers.  Car parks need to be maintained if nothing else.  In this era of never ending government enforced austerity and budget cuts, it is not surprising that councils like Stockport are having to think about how they raise more money.

[CllrGeoffAbell]

To update a few details: the "Purple Pakora" car park is Stockport MBC owned: it used to be a cattle market until teh 60s I gather.  TfGM stumped up some money to make a surfaced car park, but we (the people) still own it.  Network Rail do have access rights.  And the restaurant, formerly Mi(d)dlers (officers have been told it's changed), formerly a sweet shop, is not part of that car park space.

None of the local councillors are happy with the proposals, and we are attempting to change them.  We were told there was consultation, but this wasn't done properly.  There was a meeting at the town hall re this last week (when I was away) reported by Marple Civic Society here - thanks to them.  Look for "car parking" at teh start of eth news section.
http://www.marplecivicsociety.org.uk/News.html
The big danger is that is will hurt small businesses in Marple Br and Marple, and train usage.

The Labour-run council however faced a revenue shortfall of £1.5m last year and this was only met by digging into reserves built up over the years.  This is not sustainable, and will get worse until 2020 when all government rate-support subsidy stops.  They need to find the money from somewhere.  2018-2019's budget will be set on 22 Feb at full council.  That's the backdrop.

I'll keep an update on progress here.  I hope people find this useful.
 

[Dave]

And what the Purple Pakora car park needs more than anything is marked spaces. People park too far apart, and it's very wasteful of precious space. 

[gazwhite]

Interesting - can't understand why they wouldn't already apply a charge here for parking if they do own it - and why its not kept in good condition like other council owned car parks.

[corium]

One thing I note from the maps & info kindly pointed to by others & combining it  is that the car parking in Brabyns Park is council owned but they don't seem to regard it as being near the station...unlike all the commuters I see using it!