Dear Editor,
We wholeheartedly agree with our fellow Nantwich Town Councillor, Cllr David Marren, regarding the recent payment changes Cheshire East Council has made to its Pay and Display Machines on its car parks.
Whatever were they thinking of when they introduced totally cashless payments?
On a daily basis we are hearing about residents and visitors to the town being unable to pay for parking either because they neither have nor want to use bank card or they don’t have a mobile phone with the app RingGo.
When we hear that they simply give up, get back into their cars, and drive away we despair.
What made things doubly worse was reintroducing the parking charges on the very day that some of town centre shops reopened after weeks of lockdown.
As lockdown restrictions slowly ease all Councils need to do whatever they can to encourage people to venture out into our town centres to revitalise local economies.
We feel that Cheshire East Council has made a huge mistake with this thoughtless decision and we are asking that, for the good of the economies of our local town centres, it is urgently reviewed.
Councillors Peter Groves and Andrew Martin
Nantwich Town Councillors
I sympathise with those who are unable to use the car parks in Nantwich because they do not have a bank card (or do not want, for some reason, to use one). However, it seems to me that this is likely to be a very small minority of residents and visitors. Has anyone actually tried to find out how many people are affected?
The evidence so far is anecdotal. It seems to be received wisdom that car parking charges affect the town’s businesses and everyone jumps on the same bandwagon, often for political purposes. The reality is that you can have as much car parking as you need to shop or sightsee in Nantwich for about the price of a cup of coffee. Or for nothing, if you wait until after 3pm and park in Snow Hill. If this is putting you off then you are probably not going to bring much business to the town.
It’s different for people who work in Nantwich. They should be able to buy weekly tickets for a commuted sum.
It’s to late to be reviewed,damage done and folk going elsewhere.
As for the Ringo app,isn’t a 10p charge made for using and I guess Cheshire east gets a percentage.