'Just another tax on the motorist': Walsall shoppers not impressed with plans to raise parking fees

Walsall Council said the rise was a small increase reflecting the increased cost of managing and maintaining car parks, and said that the new rates were 10p more than in 2017 and all day parking was cheaper than it had been in 2010.

Among the changes there will be an increase of 50p for a two-hour stay at short stay and long stay car parks, from £1.10 to £1.60, as well as sizeable increases for four-hour stays and season ticket prices in the town centre.

Notices advertising the price increases are on display at car parks including Green Lane off Townend Street, prompting comments from a number of motorists arriving at the site.

Anne Whittaker, 60, from Harden, said it was just another example of prices going up amid a cost of living crisis.

She said: "To me it's neither here nor there as everything is going up in price at the moment and while, for me, it won't matter too much as I don't come down here that often, I can see why people might be annoyed about it.

"I don't know whether the council are doing a good job with this car park as the machine doesn't always work properly and if it doesn't, you don't know who to get in touch with as there's no numbers on there, so that's the thing that annoys me about this."

Jennifer and Harold Barrett, from Brownhills, who were in town to visit the post office said that they felt the increases were not value for money.

Jennifer, 70, said: "It's something I'm really annoyed about because you have to use your card with this machine and I don't want to do that, I just want to use money.

"It's a big rise for the parking as well because it's 45 per cent and it's going to cost us more if we come into town to go to the post office and Poundland as it's an extra 50p."

Harold, 66, said: "We're being told it's a thing that needs to happen to maintain the car parks, so it should be used to pay for fixing potholes, but we could park at the private one across the road for much less, so it's not good to have this increase."

Keith O'Mahony, 63, from Wolverhampton, said: "I'm not happy about this as we pay enough as motorists as it is and I think it's just another tax on the motorist.

"It's also not good because a lot of people aren't coming for the full two hours to do their shopping, they're only here for an hour at the most, so it feels like you're penalised because you're a motorist.

"I just don't like councils that put up parking fees such as this as I don't like paying extra for a service like this."

Lynne Worsnop, a manager, said: "I just think it's not really good as I work at the YMCA which is right opposite this car park and my staff have to park on here when they're working late shifts, so the cost of it going up is just absolutely ridiculous just to park your car.

"The machine doesn't always work and it can also be really slow and I think there are a lot of people would be very unhappy at having to pay 50p extra for a car parking space."