Car Parking.....

6:51pm Friday 4th January 2008

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By rob beavan »

Firstly, New Year wishes to all of you.

Secondly - let's bring this one to the fore.

Car Parking....



Changes are afoot that have been brought about by a review of Herefordshire's car parking charges and to try and equal them out across the county. Places like lucky old Kington have had more than their fare share of free parking it seems...the swines..... ;-)

However, if you read the Council's web page you will see details about the changes.

Now, in an effort to totally confirm what a sad individual I am, I have spent a few minutes looking at car parking information in Hereford (found here ) and with great pride I can confirm that there are 2842 car parking spaces available in Hereford city (excluding weekend only and reserves/season ticket type spaces).

I understand that we should be looking to reduce the amount of traffic in our fair city, but this should not be done at the expense of actually bringing people into the city. Hereford is at the hub of a string of market towns and serves a large swathe of rural areas as the nearest 'big' city. So, what do we do to reward these fair people who keep our city and county economy so buoyant ? We hit them with ridiculous parking charges or 'encourage' them to use inadequate and/or inconvenient alternatives. Nice.

Let's look at that figure again : 2842.

That's 2842.

Herefordshire population : 177,800 (according to the Council's own statistics for 2004).

That's 0.016 of a car parking space for each Herefordshire resident.

Wow ! Thanks.

So, we have few car parking spaces available and the ones you can get are at high prices (and getting higher).

What's the alternative ? Well, don't bother coming to Hereford. If you're in Ledbury - go to Gloucester, Bromyard go to Worcester, etc, etc.

Or, don't shop in the city itself. Shop in the 'hypermarkets' and supermarkets on the outskirts where the car parking is free or can be claimed back.

A recent article in our own Hereford Times details criticism levelled on Hereford for having too many supermarkets (accounting for a whopping 79% of the the city's food expenditure !!!). But, they are easy to get to and free to use. Factor things in like Maplin, Currys, PC World, etc. I know where I will go to if I want to 'pop' and get an electrical item. Fight the traffic and then pay for the pleasure, or scoot along to Holmer Road, park for free and get what you want in next to no time.

I'm not a big fan of these 'out of town' shops and big supermarkets, but they certainly do have the attractive advantage of being very convenient.

I think that, in essence, the point I'm trying to get across is that Hereford really does need to have serious time and money spent on it to give it a chance to compete in the local economy. It's pointless penalising those who keep the very economy that we depend on afloat. Let's make it easier. Let's draw people to the city, not push them away. How do other towns and cities do it ? My son and I were able to catch a bus from Cardiff train station to the Millennium Centre and pay just £2.50 return for both of us - whilst safe in the knowledge that we can board a bus back within 10 minutes.

Some thought is required.....