Letter: Parking policies and prices damaging to Shrewsbury businesses
The statement displayed in the window of Music Central, as featured in the Shropshire Star, is regrettable but completely accurate.
The parking policies, prices and enforcement methods adopted and controlled by the council are working in a detrimental and damaging way for business in Shrewsbury.
The council seems blind to the reality of the economic downturn. It spends thousands on consultants, while introducing changes to Sunday parking rules and proposing to light up the railway station!
Recent Sunday parking changes are merely a further attempt to increase revenue and to trick tourists, shoppers and anyone visiting the town, so they can issue more penalty charge notices.
The plain fact is that revenue from this has increased massively over the last five years. Further, disabled bays in the town are anything but clear, another simple trick to raise revenue that I have witnessed each Sunday over the last four years.
The council does not consult business, it does not listen to business and it has little interest in doing so, as business rates are payable whether or not the shop or site is operating. It is not rocket science to work out shoppers would rather go to free out-of-town shopping areas, than to come into Shrewsbury and find a decimated high street.
If you want to see how a tourist driven, buoyant economy is managed by its council and operated in conjunction with its shops and businesses, visit Chester or York.
Quintin Morgan
Shrewsbury
