Free parking may not be answer
A MOVE to introduce free Saturday parking in eight district council pay-and-display car parks could worsen the current parking situation rather than bring about a boost for businesses, it has been claimed.
Charges will be lifted in long-stay and combined stay car parks from next April, but it is feared that the free spaces will be taken by shop staff and business people leaving no free spaces for shoppers, who the council intends to benefit from its change of policy.
Council vice-chairman and Loughton Residents Association councillor Caroline Pond said: "I think this could be counter productive."
Independent Loughton councillor Stephen Murray said: "Come 10am or 11am you won't be able to park. It will just be filling up before 9am and packed full all day."
He added: "I'm not convinced that what we're going to do will help the local businesses and shops. I'm not convinced this is what's going to be achieved. It's just as likely they will be full at the beginning of the day and remain full and it will make it harder for people to park rather than easier."
Civil engineering and maintenance portfolio holder Andy Green dismissed a suggestion from Epping councillor Matthew Colling that the free parking could be from 9.30am only, thereby preventing shop workers from taking advantage, but he said the council wanted to avoid the need, and additional cost, of enforcement and said he hoped shop staff would not "shoot themselves in the foot" by parking in the free spaces intended for their customers.
Buckhurst Hill councillor and council chairman Ann Haigh called for both Queens Road car parks (upper and lower) to be made free on Saturdays, rather than just the lower car park as planned.
She told the last cabinet meeting: "It does seem that if we care for small businesses we're rewarding the businesses at the bottom but not giving the same advantages to the businesses at the top (of Queens Road)."
Waltham Abbey councillor Peter McMillan said: "I think this is a really positive move and we should see how it works out. Let's see it happen and the sooner the better."