‘Flawed’ Shropshire Council car parking policy to be reviewed

Councillor Roger Evans, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has asked for the document to be looked at again.

Earlier this month the local authority's cabinet accepted the strategy which will see charges change for the first time since 2012, and unify parking across Shropshire, with all car parks and on-street parking provision sorted into seven bands.

It means it will cost 70p per hour to park at Frankwell in Shrewsbury, with an eight-hour stay working out at £5.60. Councillors also agreed to reduce the pop and shop time in Shrewsbury and Ludlow.

However, Councillor Evans said: "The policy as proposed and agreed by the cabinet on car parking is flawed and takes no notice of the public consultation carried out.

"We want Shrewsbury and the towns in Shropshire to be the place to visit. What is proposed is in danger of killing any expansion and could even cause some businesses to fail.

"We want our town centres to thrive and compete against the ever-increasing presence of the out of town shopping areas.

"This seems to us as being primarily a way of increasing income to the council with the effect on towns totally disregarded. We maintain it will in effect cause less people to visit our town centres and therefore the total income received from parking fees to decrease not increase."

Councillor Evans has asked members of the place overview scrutiny committee to reconsider the banding on Ludlow car parks and the hours people have to pay to park, which has been extended from 6pm to 8pm.

Ludlow Chamber of Commerce has said the changes will destroy the night time economy.

Secretary Tish Dockerty said: "Parking in the town centre is currently chaotic. On one hand Shropshire Council is happy to introduce these increases and additional restrictions where they will benefit financially, but seem to lack any will to sort out our everyday problems of parking.

"It seems there is a certain short termism being applied to Ludlow that with huge detrimental effect, without a vision for the town or even care for basic needs."

A spokesman for Shropshire Council said it will go before the scrutiny committee sometime in early February.

Members will decide whether to make any recommendations to go before cabinet.