Change needed to aid parking
If you’re a regular reader of my column you will know how much I love our city, and I always feel a huge sense of loyalty to it. When I go clothes shopping, I choose The Bridges. When I eat out, I choose restaurants in Sunderland. When I need services and resources for my business, I use local suppliers.
However, I find it increasingly difficult to access the aforementioned quickly and easily at times, simply because parking is so limited.
We are very fortunate to have the big car parks by Debenhams and by Keel Square, but if you just need to pop into a shop, business or restaurant at the other end of the city centre, it’s double yellow line city.
With the rise in growth of online shopping and services, face to face retailers already have enough to contend with, without potential customers being put off choosing them because it’s not convenient to park or it costs a fortune.
Maybe I’m biased, because as a business owner myself, I know that there can be challenging times and I can empathise, but surely, in the interest of supporting local businesses it would be helpful to make parking a little easier.
All I want to do is to be able to park outside my favourite restaurants on an evening, or pull up outside my local printers without having to pay over £1 for five minutes of parking for fear of getting a ticket.
While some may interpet this as being lazy, I can assure you it’s not (don’t forget I’m a fitness lover!).
It’s quite simply about being super busy and wanting to be able to get things done as time efficiently as possible, because like most people with work and a family to juggle, I’m always pushed for time.
So what’s the solution? Well if it were up to me and I could wave my magic wand, I’d certainly rub out a few double yellow lines.
I’d make it easier to ‘pop in and out’ of places in the city centre by offering five to 10-minute only bays and I’d make parking outside of the perimeteres of traditional business hours free in more places.
I really think that making small changes to parking in the city centre would make it an even more attractive place for businesses to locate themselves and it would also encourage greater footfall.
As always, I’m keen to hear your thoughts and opinions, so don’t be shy, tweet me your thoughts to @KatieBulmer1
“In the interest of supporting local businesses it would be helpful to make parking a little easier” KATIE BULMER-COOKE