A popular car park in Nantwich is to re-open under a new operator, agents confirmed today.
The Bowers Row car park was closed off last week after Cheshire East Council refused to pay higher rental charges and declined to renew the lease.
Bollards were installed at the entrance and exit to the car park between Waterlode and the Crown Hotel, blocking off the 32 parking spaces and 2 disabled spaces.
Cheshire East Council had rented the car park for a number of years.
But its officials were seen removing ticket machines and other equipment at the end of last week.
Now it’s been confirmed it will re-open under new tenants, but it’s not clear what system the car park will operate under in terms of prices and length of stay.
A spokesman for Fifield Glyn, agents on behalf of the landowners, said: “The council simply did not renew their lease, so the car park is being let to another company and will be back open as soon as the legals have completed.
“It should be back open in the next week or so depending on solicitors.
“I am not sure how it’s going to be running at the moment as that’s going to be down to the new tenant.”
The Crown Hotel rents several spaces to the right of the land for its overnight residents.
They were initially affected by the closure, but now have a key to lower bollards down to allow residents to park.
One source said discussions about rental charges between the landowner and CEC have been ongoing “for months”.
“We’ve been told CEC just kept pushing it down the garden path and would not engage with the landlord on an increased market rate,” he added.
A Cheshire East Council spokesperson said: “The council must keep its revenue costs under review on behalf of the council taxpayer. This car park is in private ownership and the council has taken the opportunity to end its lease with the landlord.
“The car park – which has 34 spaces – was not proving to be cost effective to operate. However, the council understands it may continue to operate under private ownership.”
The car park was temporarily closed last week to allow for the removal of the dying chestnut tree, as revealed by Nantwich News earlier this month.
There are still many car parks which Cheshire East “runs” which are free to park on (especially in Sandbach, Alsager and Middlewich) – how can they be cost effective to run? Every car park needs re-surfacing and other attention occasionally. It is still NOT a level playing field as regards car parking in Cheshire East. It is easy to say the charges in Nantwich are for car park management. You don’t need management if you have sufficient spaces. In the last 30 years available spaces have actually DECREASED in Nantwich, thus INCREASING the need for space management.
Why can’t Cheshire East buy the car park and provide free parking? My council tax must be going somewhere.
Can’t buy if the owner doesn’t want to sell
They are the council they could compulsory purchase the land
About 3/4s of the council budget goes on schools, social care for adults (including pensioners) and children, and housing.
We elected a government that has reduced central government funding dramatically, meaning that councils have to raise money elsewhere (parking charges) and have less money to spend.
Then there’s ye years of mismanagment of cheshire east council by the previous council.
When we vote for low tax governments, there are consequences.
Why are folk so reliant on car parking spaces, I have lived near the town for 20yrs yet hardly use a town space, preferring to walk, or park near the town and walk. some folk just want the entire country as a car park!
Hal parking is not a problem for you, much like I we are just able to walk into the town. However, as increasingly more houses are built in the surrounding area, the demand for town centre parking is just going to increase exponentially.
I don’t think the problem is as simple as ‘just walk into town instead’
Can I park at your house please, Hal?
Any time you like mate.
No seriously given climate change you do need to ask yourself, can I do better, a short walk to town isn’t impossible, we all need to question just because we can, really should we?
I know if you don’t live close that’s another matter, but park and ride could be an option
Just try an edit on your thinking and get walking more, or be prepared to pay more and more, just saying.
Because some of us don’t live in town and have to travel, since CEC removed many bus services from rural areas of cheshire east we have no alternative thatn cars.
This could now introduce higher charges for car parking now the control is out of the hands of Cheshire East. Just like a raw deal we get with pay per view when watching football or other sports
Another example of where the customer suffers due to book balancing
The council would have had to increase the cost to balance the difference in revenue. This would in turn have meant that this car park would be a higher cost to customers wanting to use it and you can imagine the fallout that would ensue for different pricing across the town for council operated spaces. The response would likely have been to simply increase the cost of all spaces in the town, further creating frustration for customers and widening the gap between Nantwich and other CEC towns, some of which it’s free to park. They’ve done the right thing by not submitting to increasing costs and instead letting a private business pick it up, who will likely keep the cost the same as the council parks in order to be competitive.