Nantwich businesses are losing trade because visitors to the town can’t find a parking space, a councillor said.
Cllr Peter Groves (Con) said Cheshire East Council had done nothing to address the loss of the 80-plus spaces on the unofficial St Anne’s car park, off Welsh Row, when the site was developed.
He said he had been contacted by several business owners about the problem.
“We’re now in a position where people driving into the town, especially on Saturdays or busy market days, if they can’t park they just turn round and go somewhere else,” Cllr Groves told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“I have been going on at the council for some years about a full scale review of car parking in Nantwich so they could look at both provision and the charging structure.
“What’s really irritating me is that the town centre vitality plans are being dealt with by the economy and growth committee but car parking is being dealt with by the highways committee.
“You do not need to be brain of Britain to realise that town centre vitality and car parking go hand in hand.
“We need to look at both at the same time.”
The Nantwich councillor, who is also Mayor of Nantwich, said some traders are really concerned they could go out of business if footfall continues to drop because of the parking problems.
“Nantwich is primarily a town with independently run shops – they survive on the footfall in Nantwich and if the footfall isn’t there they basically won’t have a business and that’s the thing I’m really concerned about,” he said.
He added a lot of people on the new estates being built would drive into town.
“If you look at Kingsbourne, we’ve got 900 odd houses coming on stream, we’re just about to get another 80 odd houses on the site on Peter Destapleigh Way, so that’s around 1,000 houses.
“Those people that live on Kingsbourne or Peter Destapleigh, they’re not going to walk into Nantwich every time.
“They’ll go in and they’ll want somewhere to park. Nobody is talking about how that is going to be addressed.”
Nantwich has no free car parks now the unofficial St Anne’s has gone.
Together with Crewe and Wilmslow, it has among the highest parking charges in Cheshire East.
Cllr Groves added: “The issue of car parking in Nantwich, Crewe and Wilmslow is a hot potato for residents because people in Nantwich and Crewe and Wilmslow say why am I paying to re-surface [free] car parks in Alsager and Sandbach etc.
“But the biggest issue at the moment is the car parking provision, because that’s fundamental to the footfall in the town.”
(story by Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter)
I love the fact that the mayor believes that “Those people that live on Kingsbourne or Peter Destapleigh, they’re not going to walk into Nantwich”. It’s not more than a mile! Surely when permission was granted for this eyesore of a development the council believed that it was an integrated part of town and not car-commutable? I live further away than either of these places and I have never driven into town.
Knock down the Civic Hall and turn it into parking. It’ll also mean local people avoid paying for the huge annual losses the amateurs that run the Civic manage to make. Win-win. Joined up thinking at its best!
Sounds to be an excellent idea Jed … Well done : )
shuttle bus from the football ground to the town, sorted