The Cornwall Rip off
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There are many more, C.
I think people tend not to realise that, along with other things, the car parks are put there largely for the convenience of our many welcome visitors. In winter it would not be cost effective to collect fees but for the rest of the time it’s only fair that users should pay. Or maybe some folk think we Council Tax payers should foot the bill for upkeep as we do for lifeguards and so on 😕
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If LA/NT did not charge for parking when the tourists are probably outnumbering locals, and using the infirstructure much more, where else do they get the money from to pay to keep the places we all love to visit as we like to see them,as when the tourists leave a lot are ghost towns as the second home and rental properties are empty,so to try to keep it ticking over then free parking is one of the few options available
Just note the loss leaders at most of the commercial sites to keep people booking at off peak periods
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Weston Super Mare sea front, its £6 no matter how long you want to park.
When we stayed at St Davids this year found parking charges on our excursions reasonable ..... except for one! We had been out and enjoying the day for 6 or 7 hours. On the way back at about 4.30pm, not far from the site, I thought that we would drop of for a coffee using a nearby popular car park near the beach and the associated cafe. I would have happily paid a couple of quid, maybe even £3 and taken the opportunity for a brew and cake and watched some windsurfing for half an hour or so. Wasn't prepared to pay the £6 asked though.
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The charge for parking at the Park and Ride has been done away with as people were not using it, probably not so much for the £1 cost but because visitors found the machine too confusing. However if you think parking in town is cheaper you obviously did not park centrally. £2.90 per hour in the most central car park rising to £22.60 if you stay up to five hours. We avoid Cambridge as much as possible and visit the surrounding towns of Ely, St Ives, Newmarket and Saffron Walden in preference.
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That's the lifeguards on the Blue Flag beaches that cost £1.5 Billion to achieve!
We are all, locals and visitors, beneficiaries but its the residents of the SW that paid most so maybe parking charges are not so bad?!
I am currently looking at sites for both 2019 and 2020 in France Spain and Italy and I doubt that many stays will not involve the payment of a 'Tourist Tax'.
Usually insignificant, in the scheme of things, I was surprised a couple of years ago in Austria by the amount, I am pretty sure that such a tax here would almost certainty be declared a 'rip off'!
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It isn't just tourists who are paying over the odds for parking. In Leeds yesterday we met our son to look at Christmas presents for his daughter, and for a meal, and walked back with him to the car park. It cost him £15 to park for three hours! (We paid, we'd gone in by bus using our free passes). He says he doesn't go into Leeds any more because of the cost of parking. I'm not surprised that people are shopping on line and that stores such as Debenhams, and Marks and Spencer are struggling.
In December our home town had free parking last year during December weekends, and shop turnover was up hugely on previous years.
I know that 'tourist hot spots' probably consider that they would be overwhelmed if free parking was offered, but it would be an interesting experiment to see what happens if some town were to try it. Maybe they would spend the £9 parking fee, which currently goes to the council, in local shops which are the lifeblood of the community.
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It isn't just tourists who are paying over the odds for parking. In Leeds yesterday we met our son to look at Christmas presents for his daughter, and for a meal, and walked back with him to the car park. It cost him £15 to park for three hours!
I have not been in Leeds centre since 1974 when I left college there. I did stop off at the college car park around 2 years later when I finally called in to collect my diploma on my way to Hull
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I know that 'tourist hot spots' probably consider that they would be overwhelmed if free parking was offered, but it would be an interesting experiment to see what happens if some town were to try it. Maybe they would spend the £9 parking fee, which currently goes to the council, in local shops which are the lifeblood of the community.
Hi ValDa, slightly off thread but this week we had to go to Exeter for my wife to have her first checkup following hip surgery. As she cant walk far I suggested using a wheelchair from Shopmobility so that we could visit the town centre.
The hire cost is £6.50, that goes to Shopmobility, but your parking is free and so a loss to the council.
In order to show what this service is 'worth' to the local economy users are asked to enter on a form what they have spent while using the Shopmobility service. Our spend was just over £80 and had this service not been available we would not have visited or spent anything.
Clearly there is an incentive to show the value of the Shopmobility service but maybe that is not the case in most other situations so we cant measure it nor make a judgment on it.
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Tourists are a food source, alway have been.
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And, by the very nature of our hobby, we’re all tourists.
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Travelling in by public transport, whilst laudable for those who can do it, (and we do it all the time), isn't so easy when you have a baby in a buggy, intend buying a large Christmas present, and a bus takes an hour and a half, including two changes, each with a long wait, to get back to your home 'on the outskirts'. Buses have a limited amount of space for wheelchairs or buggies, and if the space is taken up there is no alternative except waiting for another bus. It's also very difficult for disabled people, and in any event there is no easy 'park and ride' solution on my son's side of Leeds. He would either have to drive a very long way around the ring road, or through the centre anyway!
As I said, discouraging cars into the town centre, without a proper public transport alternative, can only lead to the loss of shops - and it won't be long! I'm all for a decent public transport option, but it isn't available in Leeds, much as the council might deny that fact.
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Bram Stoker knew that👍🏻🧛🏼♂️🧛🏻♀️
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Readymoney wasn’t free when we visited last month C, we paid around £4 for four hours. Accept it might be free now. We were happy to pay, it’s a lovely walk down the carriagedrive, along the road, Esplanade and into town, but you need to be sound of wind and limb to do it. We didn’t pay on Par Beach but it was around 7pm at night and was just a 20 minute last walkies for pooches.
We use public transport for cities, that’s always best option for us.
As an aside, we found a lovely bit of discrimination the other day. Sure everyone knows that 60 year olds can have a free bus pass in Wales and Scotland. But how many know that London residents also get this? Hardly fair to rest of English!
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