Shropshire “takes the least from motorists on parking”

Shropshire has been named as one of five areas in England that “take the least [amount of money] from motorists on parking” in a paper by the Federation of Small Businesses.

The October 2013 discussion paper focussed on Parking and Local Trade and looked at problems small businesses and councils faced when considering parking policies and high street trade.

The paper drew attention to the need for “innovative and creative thinking” with parking to help boost trade in high streets.  One of the discussed areas was Eric Pickles’ suggestion of a 15-minute allowance of parking on double yellow lines without penalty in order to enable shoppers to quickly pop into stores for groceries or short shopping trips.

The paper stressed that a 15-minute window would encourage shoppers to visit high street stores for such visits rather than go to supermarkets where parking is free and supported the principle, but discussed the difficulties surrounding parking on double yellow lines.

However, in May 2013 Shropshire Council introduced a 15-minute ‘grace period’ for shoppers, but applied the period to designated pay and display bays at all council-owned surface car parks and on-street parking bays.  The policy meant people would not need to buy a ticket if they were only parking for 15 minutes and, by using designated parking bays, avoided unnecessary congestion in narrow streets.

Keith Barrow, Leader of Shropshire Council, said:

“We’ve said all along we are keen to work with motorists to keep car parking charges fair and to be shown to be one of the lowest charging authorities in England I think demonstrates that we have been following through on this. 

“Parking charges are always an emotive topic for motorists, but we have tried to look at the problems differently and tackle them in a different way, which works for the good of everyone.”

The Shrewsbury Food Festival and Cartoon Festival were also met with a provision of free parking in council-owned long stay car parks.

Information relating to the car parks owned by Shropshire Council can be found here.