Parking fee rise may 'hurt businesses' - shoppers

Parking charges in Brighouse are increasing

Small businesses and shoppers have said that higher parking tariffs would "just make it more and more difficult" for the high street to compete with out-of-town retail centres.

From 18 November, drivers in Brighouse will be charged £2 to park for an hour in on-street bays - a 400% rise from the previous fee of 40p.

One shopper said they believed "small businesses won't stand a chance" as a result of the change.

Calderdale Council said the rise was designed to encourage people to use larger, off-street car parks during times of high demand and to avoid "clogging up" streets with traffic.

However, visitors to the town centre told the BBC that elderly people would struggled to walk to shops from the few free spaces that remained.

The increased charges will apply to Commercial Street, Bradford Road, King Street, Market Street, Gooder Street and Briggate. Blue Badge holders are exempt.

Barbara Goodall, 82, from Dewsbury said: "You can park in Tesco for two hours with no charge, but then you have to walk back into town, so anyone with any affliction is going to struggle."

Wine and cheese shop owner John Murphy said some shoppers have to drive round "fix or six times" to find a spot

The parking situation has made trading "more and more difficult" for John Murphy, who recently announced he was closing his shop, Czerwik Fine Wines and Cheeses, after 29 years.

His premises are on Commercial Street and he said: "People are trying to shop locally. People say that they have been driving round five or six times to find a spot to park.

"They get frustrated and park and shop at the supermarkets."

Fellow shopkeeper Joshua Donaire, who owns discount store DONS, is moving to a larger unit but still worried for the future.

He said: "I think it will be a real negative. The elderly like to be able to park near the shop and pick up their stuff, but with charges like that they aren't going to do it.

He added: "I think a lot of them will decide against coming to the town centre."

Discount store owner Joshua Donaire thinks the increase will be a "negative"

Another shopper opposed to the charges was David Wilkinson. The 51-year-old said: "There's not enough parking in Brighouse anyway, so charging a premium for it is a bit much.

"For people with limited mobility, some have Blue Badges but there are also people who don't have them who still have limited mobility and they are having to pay parking tariffs, they're hardest hit."

Samuel Garfurth, who had only recently moved to Brighouse, agreed that the fee should have remained at 40p.

He added: "There's not a lot of space to park here anyway. The last thing the town needs is for people to be put off from coming here to shop."

Calderdale Council's cabinet member for transport, Sarah Courtney said: "We understand that increasing parking charges is never popular, but pricing is the most effective way to manage kerb space. A recent survey concluded that on-street spaces in Brighouse are at a premium and occupancy remains high on most days.

“Due to this continued demand, we have identified that parking charges could be used to better manage the kerb space in the town and encourage use of the car parks in and around the town centre, where data showed that, even at peak times, there were over 100 available spaces."

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