Major Shrewsbury business warns it could pull out of town over parking charge hikes
One of Shrewsbury's most well-known businesses has warned it could consider leaving the town if Shropshire Council goes ahead with major hikes in parking charges.
Now Tanners Wine Merchants, one of Shrewsbury's most successful long-standing independent businesses, has warned of the impact the charges could have on its staff, saying it could look at moving out of the town as a result.
The controversial proposals have been met with dismay from Shrewsbury's business community, which has urged a re-think over the plans.
Last month the council's scrutiny committee acknowledged the concerns behind the plans by referring them back to the authority's cabinet – specifically to reconsider the 'higher charges' in Shrewsbury.
Shrewsbury Business Improvement District (BID), which represents the town's businesses and has been campaigning against the move, has welcomed that decision, saying it marked "a positive step in the right direction".
Robert Boutflower, private sales director at Tanners Wine Merchants, said: "Tanners employs 45 staff in Shrewsbury, who face a whopping parking charge increase. That increase has already brought requests for an increase in wages, in a sector under a lot of pressure to be competitive. Tanners therefore has to consider such an implication for its business, and whether we move out of the town."
“Around 50,000 customer visits were recorded last year to our Wyle Cop premises, many being ‘non-local’ on our system,” he added.
