I see that following Thursday's elections we not only have a hung parliament, we have a hung council in Mole Valley, the Conservatives have lost control of the council.
It rather looks as though some of their more foolish initiatives such as increased parking charges - that have resulted in a fall in parking income - coupled with the foolish but innovative idea (now being copied by Guildford) of charging for evening car parking at certain car parks, have well and truly come home to roost - no offence to our friend on the roundabout at Deepdene.
Perhaps the LibDem councillors who still control Dorking town centre will now tackle some of the town's serious shortcomings: it's not a perfect economic climate to get started in but it's a job that needs to be done right now.
Pepin.
PS. Please don't forget that next Tuesday (I'm pretty certain it is Tuesday) marks another Farmers' Market in South Street.
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Hey Pepin - where do you find out about revenue from parking?
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested at looking at this as it will be indicative of footfall in the town. I for one am of the belief that there are fewer customers now than in the past in Dorking, and it must be to do with parking charges.
I realise that the council has to raise revenue somehow, but if raising prices decreases revenue, you don't have to be John Maynard Keynes to work out that decreasing prices may increase revenue and bring much needed trade into the town.
Just a thought.
Jim (The Lemon Tree)
Hello Jim
ReplyDeletePretty simple (and nothing clever on my part) it was published in the Dorking Advertiser about a couple of months ago.
I agree that parking is an impostant issue; since I don't believe they will back down on this I wish they would consider introducing a, say, 30 minute rate at a low cost - if people abuse this by overstaying they (MVDC) have the mechanism in place to penalise parkers. The low rate would encourage those simply want to go to the bank or make a quick purchase - and it just might increase footfall.
Pepin
And indeed revenue!
ReplyDeleteHi Pepin, thanks for the response.
Parking charges are such an obvious and visible barrier to trade that we shopkeepers have no control over and it is frustrating. I know Sonja from Shrewd felt so strongly about it that she was (is?) offering to pay her customers' parking charges.
It may be an oversimplification, but if parking charges were removed altogether (albeit with some sort of mechanism to deter commuter/all-day parking whilst encouraging shoppers' parking), I can guarantee that revenues in every single shop would increase markedly.
Of course the council would probably seek to extract these extra revenues from shops to compensate for the lost parking revenue...
Jim
Jim, I actually don't object to some parking charges, it is the level they are applied at that really counts. In Dorking there is no justification for high charges - and they are high in relation to what's on offer in the town.
ReplyDeleteWhat really irritates me is that while you and your employees, if you drive to work, are forced to pay this additional tax (because that's what it is really) the council employees have reserved free parking right next to their place of work - and I understand they do not pay tax on what is clearly a benefit in kind.
Let's hope that councillors will now sit down and think about what they can do for Dorking in exactly the same way they have 'worried' about Leatherhead in the past - and continue to for that matter. Dorking has a lot going for it - except the council.
Pepin