Opinion: Will they listen and help save our town centres?

You will have seen that I am deeply disappointed and frustrated with the Powys car parking review report and I wanted to explain why to your readers.

Our town centres are slowly dying from declining footfall, and we need to do everything we can to help them – all that higher car park charges will achieve is to encourage shoppers to stay away from our high streets and either shop online or travel to shopping centres where free parking is available.

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It has taken far too long for this report to be produced, and it appears to ignore the recommendations of the working group – what a waste of time ,effort and taxpayers’ money (almost £50,000).

Looking at the reasoning for the counter recommendations in the report it gives the impression that the working group was used as a cover for this Liberal Democrat/Labour led administration to raise more funding (some £402,000) to pay for their poor decision making across the council as a whole rather than a real desire to listen to and implement the working group’s recommendations which were based on their communities needs and views.

The feeling of the pointlessness of the working group is further compounded by the statement that “petrol and diesel cars must be curtailed in the long term”  - I hope I am wrong but that implies to me that political ideology was always going to win and that the working group would never get what they really asked for which was a reintroduction of the 1-hour tariff to encourage visitors to our town centres.

Whilst the report acknowledges the importance and concern to the working group (comprising members from across Powys) of its recommendation asking for the reintroduction of the one-hour tariff into long stay car parks, none of the advantages of doing so are listed and I wonder if a balanced decision can be reached without this, for example:-

• Reintroduction would support high street footfall
• It would encourage pop and shop visits thus supporting town centres and local shops
• Fosters a greater willingness to pay as more aligned with people’s needs
• Any possible reduction in revenue could be balanced out by encouraging shorter visits and higher turnover

The report acknowledges that free nighttime parking helps the nighttime economy – so surely cheaper day time parking would also benefit the daytime economy.

I cannot believe that free parking for events will cease when following a question from a member of public at full council on 20th July 2023 who asked if Powys could show some goodwill by offering free parking on Saturdays in December in the run up to Christmas the portfolio holder agreed this could be beneficial. Why the change of heart now?

Finally, the report states that the review process was not fully complete and appears to lay the blame at the feet of the working group. I would like to thank all my fellow members of the working group for the time and effort they gave to this review and would strongly suggest that the resulting 115 page consultant’s report with special reference to the 8 detailed recommendations contained therein tells a different story. Consequently, I would like to see that comment retracted and an apology issued to all members of the working group.

I only hope that the Liberal Democrat and Labour administration running Powys County Council will respect the wishes of the working group that they commissioned.

Cllr Pete Lewington
County Councillor for Newtown West