Nantwich Town councillors are to pressure Cheshire East to extend ‘free parking’ periods in the town centre.
The calls come as figures showed Cheshire East cashed in £684,000 from Nantwich car parks in 2015-16.
Yet, they only spent £187,000 on the upkeep of those car parks, according to facts obtained under Freedom of Information.
Cllr Arthur Moran led the calls at Nantwich Town Council for a free hour of parking on the Civic Hall car park, as well as free after 3pm parking on all the town’s car parks.
Cllr Moran (pictured) said: “It is totally unfair that towns like Alsager, Sandbach and Middlewich have free parking, yet Crewe and Nantwich has the highest charges in Cheshire East.
“If they are making that much money, then they can extend the element of free car parking after 3pm, not just on Snow Hill.
“But in particular, the Civic Hall car park means people having to pay to visit the doctors, the library, the Civic Hall.
“I propose we should have the first hour of parking for free on this car park.
“This would allow people just to pop in and see the doctor, drop books at the library, do a small bit of shopping.”
He also criticised Cheshire East for proposing to spend some of the surplus made on parking charges on new ticketing machines!
“Instead of that, give us some free car parking,” he added.
Town councillors unanimously agreed they should lobby Cheshire East and support these proposals.
UKIP Rope Parish Cllr Brian Silvester attacked Cheshire East for making “a massive profit of £2,500,000 on car parking charges”.
He added: “The council is barred by law from spending these profits on non-highway expenditure.
“They can’t use it to subsidise other loss-making departments.
“Cheshire East should tell us what this £2,500,000 is spent on.
“It certainly isn’t being spent on the ever-increasing potholes we have to dodge as we drive around.
“The time has come for a fair deal for all Cheshire East residents. We cannot carry on with a situation where some pay through the teeth to subsidise those who pay nowt.
“That is not fair and cannot be justified.”
Yellow lines in Pillory Street appear to be invisible too… maybe its a new town car park … looks like it most nights
Why not just park on the double yellow lines as others seem to? Apparently the highway code doesn’t apply in Nantwich.
Not going to be much of any parking available in nantwich if Cheshire east company Engine of the North have their way, they have put Snow Hill car park up for sale for development.
http://www.engineofthenorth.co.uk/snow-hill/
Hooray for the local Councillors. It’s about time the Council stopped stealing from us. No wonder half the shops are closing, parking should be free to encourage shoppers into town, not deter them. I would suggest they go to France and Germany to see how they do it. It’s very rare to find a town or village that charges for parking.
‘Stealing’??? How much is your car worth? How much do you spend on fuel? 60p isn’t exactly going to break the bank is it? I really don’t understand why people make such a fuss about the cost of parking: the equivalent of a pint of milk or about a quarter of a pint of beer for an hour’s parking seems like good value to me.
You could always walk …