Free festive parking ‘at odds with council’s green aims’
ASHBOURNE’S free festive parking offer is at odds with the district council’s current focus on climate change, councillors have pointed out – and it has even been suggested it could be the last time it is brought back.
Discussing the free after 2pm concession at a meeting last week, many councillors intercepted what was set to be a very quick decision to point out the perils of encouraging cars into town centres.
The district council has offered the December promotion for 13 years running to help boost trade for businesses in the district’s towns during the busiest time of the year - and it was recommended it should be allowed again this year.
But at Thursday’s meeting of the full council, the wider merits of the promotion were discussed for the first time, with some councillors suggesting there might be better ways to encourage people to shop locally.
Public transport, park and ride schemes and even promoting cycling to the shops were all mooted as possible alternatives to free parking in the future, during a lengthy discussion which ended in an almost unanimous vote to bring it back this year.
Wirksworth councillor Michael Ratcliffe was among the first to point out the concerns to councillors at Wirksworth Leisure Centre.
He told members: “I would agree about the value of the initiative, however I would think it’s deserving of a place in the questioning and discussion about the fact that this authority did declare a climate emergency, and should we be encouraging vehicle use to come into our towns and villages, even though we’re offering free parking?
“It’s been going 13 years, so one would expect there’s been some success from this.
“My memory’s not as good as it used to be, but I can’t recall any analysis of the past impact of this measure, the before and after effect on high street shopping or tourist expenditure during the period this free suspension takes place.
“I’ll support it, because I think there’s a judgment to be made, but I think there are things that perhaps need to be considered and accepted. It has pluses and minuses, as it were.”
Doveridge and Sudbury ward member Jacqueline Allison was among those who agreed. She said: “I do have a problem with this. I go to Ashbourne regularly and I know how congested Ashbourne gets, and the known effect it has on the air quality there.
“And for the life of me I can’t understand why we want more traffic in the town, using those car parks.
“We have no public transport from Doveridge to Ashbourne, we have to use our cars to get there, so has any consideration been given to setting up park and rides in the town centres?”
Councillor Allison was told the authority would look into a park and ride scheme for future years as part of what will become a wider review of parking in general.
Many councillors spoke out to warmly welcome the free after 2pm parking concession, including all of Ashbourne’s representatives, some of whom mentioned the work done by the Ashbourne Town Team to call for the return of the promotion, and for a similar promotion in September.
And other councillors argued that, although the climate emergency needed to be top of any agenda, there were practicalities to consider when it came to evaluating any parking alterations.
Councillor Richard Bright, a councillor for Hulland Ward who lives in Ashbourne, said: “I’m very sympathetic to the challenges we have for the climate, that we all face, and public transport is very important in that, and we must all try and support public transport.
“But I think we have to be realistic. The majority of people will have travelled here in a car. It’s not viable for us to move that quickly, and a car will be the way we travel around for a long time to come.
“We can do our best to use public transport, I try to use public transport whenever I can, realistically, but this is I think one of the best ways we can support local businesses. “And, I might say, that if we’re having people travel into their local towns, if they’re not travelling out to Derby or Nottingham for example, then in theory we are reducing their mileage. One can hope that is what happens. “But cars are here for a while, I’m afraid.”
After more discussion on both sides of the argument, the council’s leader, Councillor Garry Purdy brought the debate to a close. He said: “Whilst I agree we should support this tonight, for the absolute benefit of our traders, I believe we’ve reached a juxtaposition. “We’ve reached a point in time because of the pressure on climate change, that we’re in a transformative process, where we’re moving away from the combustion engine, electric vehicles aren’t really affordable yet, electric charging points are still a problem, and so whilst I agree we should support the traders, I think it’s time for a review on this and I would like that to be done, with input from all councillors and examination with traders as well.
“I think it’s time we had a review, and that’s where I’m coming from, so this might be the last one.
“I don’t know, let’s see.”
Last week Ashbourne Town Team published the results of its own study into the effectiveness of the district council’s one-off free after 2pm parking offer in September.
The promotion, which was put in place to boost the high street’s Covid recovery across the Derbyshire Dales, led to 84% of people who filled out a survey saying they would visit the town more often if it was cheaper to park.
The survey also found that 88.3% of people would consider coming to Ashbourne again, because of the free parking offer, and 63.4% said the free parking after 2pm influenced their decision to visit Ashbourne that day.
For the life of me I can’t understand why we want more traffic in the town, using car parks.
Jacqueline Allison