Cheaper charges at new Shrewsbury car park

A car park due to open in Shrewsbury next month will offer cheaper rates than its council-run counterparts, it was revealed today.

The new pay-and-display car park at Horsefair in Abbey Foregate will open on March 1 with space for 41 vehicles.

It will be open from Monday to Saturday between 7am and 7pm and will charge a daily rate of £2.

The price will undercut the nearby council-run Abbey Foregate car park, where it costs £2.70 to leave a car for 10 hours. It is also cheaper than the Raven Meadows car park, which charges £8 for 10 hours and also St Julian's Friars which offers all-day parking for £4.

Morris Property was given the go-ahead last month. During consultation residents raised a number of concerns about the access to the car park which they claimed would put pedestrian safety at risk.

Resident Christine Yates-Roberts said: "Access is proposed over an unadopted road which is already in a poor state of repair.

"Additional usage of potentially up to 2,000 additional vehicle movements per day will result in potholes and potential injuries by pedestrians, cyclists and the disabled."

Councillor Miles Kenny said: "There isn't a proven need for this car park and there is significantly high footfall in this area, which we want to encourage, and this development could conflict that and danger pedestrians."

But councillors gave the go-ahead on January 12.

Councillor Malcolm Price said: "What we have is a reasonable compromise as all in all they have listened to concerns and made changes."

Today Liz Lowe, head of estates at Morris Property said: "The 41 spaces created are to comply with the planning consent that was granted, in addition to which we have completed some improvement works to the highway along Horsefair, in agreement with the Local Highways Authority.

"As the car park is new, we have set the tariff at a competitive rate."