READER’S LETTER: What’s wrong with my pound?

Dear Editor,

I was contacted by one of my residents last week about the on-going problems with car park payments and the complexity of use and lack of working machines in the area.

I responded and advised my resident to email the complaint to Cllr Laura Crane (Highways Portfolio Holder).

The response that came back was a generic reply that has been sent Borough wide, according to my fellow Cllrs.

It is a response full of empty promises, and a sad indictment of CEC that Cllr Crane seeks to confuse and misrepresent what she clearly knows is a major problem throughout the Borough.

However, she has stated she was unaware of this issue in a response to myself, my resident and Cllr Dean, yet this was raised at Cabinet by Cllr Tony Dean last Tuesday.

The law-abiding shoppers do not want to incur a fine for failing to purchase a ticket, but how can they buy these tickets when the machines do not work, only to walk out of the way to find the next machine that doesn’t work either.

The machines can be complicated to use for some people, with the sun glaring onto the screen.

Then someone comes to their assistance, and social distancing goes out of the window!

This clear lack of clarity from the Administration has caused untold problems and inconvenience to the shopping public.

And then there’s RingGo, the convenient car parking app, that not only charges you an extra 10% on to of your ticket (the developers need to make a profit I agree but we’re trying to help people’s pockets here, not add on extra charges).

And what about those that do not have a smart phone, or do not have the app installed.

I have personally found it a pain to use, especially when I am in a rush and the machine was out of order, so there’s the faff of downloading it, especially in areas with poor internet connections.

The point is, this isn’t something that many resident have thought about, and not being able to use money has created a huge issue for many.

The Conservative stance would be to have not charged shoppers for car parking for the first few months to help bring shoppers back to the high street.

We would also encourage suspended charges around the Christmas period, the reintroduction of the 6 discretionary free days to be utilised by the town councils to support their initiatives over 2021/22.

I find it ludicrous that you can not use money in the machine, when there are signs clearly stating they are emptied three times a day.

CEC received £20 million for Covid purposes in the Borough.

Why not fit hand sanitiser to the machines to make people’s lives easier and give PPE to Parking attendants so they can empty the machines safely?

The Administration must realise that it is important to help ease residents back into a normal routine.

Why are they not making sure that all machines are fit-for-purpose and working properly, and why haven’t they suspended all charges until they have a suitable, working system in place.

This lack of cohesion is costing the Council a huge amount of money each day through its badly run practices.

Yours,
Cllr Kate Parkinson
High Legh Ward

(Image courtesy of Jonathan White)