Shoppers lose no-fee car parking on Sundays
Saturday 28th March 2009, 11:30AM GMT.
Free Sunday parking will be scrapped within weeks across Dudley with shoppers now facing an 80p fee for any length of stay, it has been announced.
Charges will come into force on April 20.
Increased fees will be introduced at Stourbridge’s Ryemarket, Bell Street and Birmingham Street car parks, Manor Park and Penzer Street car parks in Kingswinford, The Precinct in Halesowen, Pitfield Street car park in Dudley, and Bilston Street car park in Sedgley.
The new charges are part of a series of increases to raise an extra £100,000 for council coffers.
The prices were last put up by the authority in May 2007 and the majority of the increases relate to all-day parking charges.
The biggest rise will be in Sedgley where the all-day parking fee will spiral from £1.30 to £2.50. At Birmingham Street car park in Stourbridge the charge will go up from £1.50 to £2.50.
In Dudley, Stourbridge, Halesowen and Brierley Hill, the all-day charge will rise from £2.30 to £2.50.
In Kingswinford it will rise from £2.30 to £2.50.
The move has come under fire from shopkeepers.
Cabinet member for transport, Councillor Angus Adams, said other boroughs were also charging for Sunday parking.
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Cabinet member for transport, Councillor Angus Adams, how much do YOU pay to park your car?
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Perhaps when Sunday was a day of rest then it might have been reasonable to waive car park charges. But now that Sunday is just another day for indulging in ‘retail therapy’ then I guess it has to be just another day when car park charges apply too.
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THE NEW CHARGES ARE PART OF A SERIES OF INCREASES TO RAISE AN EXTRA £100,000 FOR COUNCIL COFFERS!!!!!!!
Whatever our feelings I think we have to admit that Hamas didn’t do the people of Gaza any favours by attracting the wrath of Israel on its people, looking at the actions of both our government and local councils towards its people, I find it hard not to compare the people of Gaza to the Electorate in the UK.
We install councils to provide services for us the Electorate, constantly the services that we are paying for are being reduced to the stage where our daily environment is now comparable to a 3rd world country.
Here are some basic facts.
Once you start charging for parking there is also the associated system of making money, Parking Fines, often Clampers are also involved.
Me personally, I only have to see there is a charge for parking and I drive past to a place where I don’t get fined for spending money in a shopping centre.
Fact!!!
The shopkeeper sells goods to its customers, that money hopefully generates a profit for the shop, out of that profit expenses have to be paid, IE, council business rates etc.
You penalise people for spending their money at a business and they don’t go there to spend, then the business doesn’t make money, then the business rates don’t get paid!!!!!
Go and look at Bearwood High Street for an example, after interference from the council that caused parking restrictions and penalties for shoppers, at the last count there are 12 business promises standing empty, those 12 business’s are not able to pay money to the council because they have no customers.
If councils need to make savings to meet their legal obligations then they have to do two things.
First they have to come into the real world and look round them, there is a recession going on, people are losing their jobs, many are having their pay reduced to the stage where they are struggling to live a basic lifestyle.
Second, if they can’t balance the books, they should stop using our money to provide themselves with free private pensions, that money is paid by us and is intended solely to provide the council services to us that we are paying for, its not to provide councillors with a recession proof lifestyle.
Jim of Bearwood.
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Don’t go to these places on Sunday,find somewhere else to go,or stay in and save the money, after a few Sundays with nothing coming in they will be begging you all to come back and watch the rates fall back to what they were!
Wake up Dudley !!
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The out of town shopping areas will be clapping their hands, talk about shooting yourself in the foot, just because
other councils are doing it does not justify charging.
Just remember councillor Adams when the elections are due, these people are on fabulous expenses, get rid of him when the time comes
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can we park on the new mosque car park because i’ll bet it’s free 7 days a week,crazy dudley is already dying,yet these stupid councillors think that people will pay through the noses to shop at dudley centre, were out of the 100 shops or so 20 are charity shops,merryhill centre should start a free bus to there nice clean safe shopping centre then dudley council will have to think twice before trying again to rip local folk off.
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Another money grabbing scheme by the fagins at Dudley Council.
£2.50 to park in Brierley Hill whilst they continue to allow their rich business pals at Merry Hill to have free parking. To raise an extra £100,000? Whe we found out the council spends £80,000 a year on limo and chaffeurs for the Mayor and £38,000 on free meals for “starving” councillors.
The Council on the one hand claims to want to rebuild the town centres, yet its the councils punitive parking charges which have driven shoppers away. No much open in Dudley on a Sunday but lets loose that trade as well…..
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Codsallman: Yes councillors have free parking unlike the rest of us proles. Now they’ve announced another whopping increase they’ve asked that council staff car parks be shut off at weekends to stop us ordinary folk using the privileges granted to the council bossess…£157,000 for a new Chief Executive…
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Who needs Dudley on a Sunday anyway. Use Merryhill, no parking charges and more choice simple as that!!!
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More people out of work now I suppose when the shops that do bother opening on a Sunday in Dudley will be forced to not open when nobody bothers to go to the town due to the high overhead costs they incur, well done DUDLEY M.B.C wonder which idiot employed there used their one and only brian cell to think up so a clever way to close down more retailers!!
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It is one of the greatest tragedies of our generation how successive administrations at Dudley Council have allowed the vile, sterile Merry Hill Centre to suck the life out of our town centre, making us a second class borough compared to our neighbours such as Walsall and Wolverhampton which still have proper town centres.
Shopping at the Merry Hill centre, which contributes nothing to the community, is not the answer; we should still support the shopkeepers of Dudley, but go the extra mile to avoid paying the parking fees – hunt out the free parking in the back streets around the edge of town. Shops will go where the money is; if you shop at Merry Hill you are hammering another nail into the the coffin of the town, which of course Dudley Council is quite happy about.
If the council is going to stop the public from using the free car parks in St James’s Road on a Saturday, it is only fair that they should be made into pay and display car parks, so the councillors and council staff have to pay to park all-week round just like their employers, ie the taxpayers, do.
Isn’t it brilliant that the council can find £90,000 for the mayor’s car, £32,000 for the stupid “hate crimes officer”, £38,000 for councillors meals, and plenty other fripperies, but needs to screw the life out of our town centre to save a hundred grand?
Angus Adams says neighbouring towns charge for parking on a Sunday; then again they have shops too.
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Paul, I can tell you quite categorically that councillors do NOT get free parking. With the exception of a car park at the council house that can be used when they have council meetings, councillors do not get any parking concessions. They have to feed the meter just the same as you do.
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