Parking fees danger to church attendance

Sir, – I am a regular church-goer to St Paul’s Cathedral in the city centre and it seems, with help from Dundee City Council (DCC), our Christian faith will become further marginalised.

Your readers already know of DCC’s intention to impose Sunday parking charges, initially only in the city’s multistorey car parks, but later, I have it on good authority, it will cover all city centre parking.

The recent proposal is for parking restrictions to apply 8am-8pm, seven days a week, instead of the current six.

Prices will increase 20p to £2.30 from April 1, with parking from two to four hours rising 40p, to £4, with the justification that Sundays are becoming like any other day. I disagree.

For many who travel to St Paul’s on Sundays, buses are simply not viable because there are so few to get them to Sunday services for a 10.30am start.

DCC also argues Christian churches have an unfair advantage over Dundee’s Muslim community, who worship on Fridays, although I would argue Christians and Muslims are not in competition to attract worshippers, and religion is not a product or commodity, it is a belief. I would suggest to DCC that what all Dundee’s churches – and I include the mosque in this – have in common is that, for decades, they have served Dundee’s communities in practical ways – food banks, soup kitchens, youth groups etc. They have done more good work for their communities than DCC ever did.

It is difficult enough to sustain city centre churches without DCC putting further barriers in their way.

Councils in other towns have contributed, through parking charges and pedestrianisation of streets, to the closure of churches. In addition, one only has to look at the increasing number of empty shops in the city centre to see incentives to bring people in are urgently required.

When DCC starts charging parking fees before 1pm Sunday, church attendance will dwindle. In addition, contributions “in plate” will dwindle, further affecting the future of the church.

It wouldn’t surprise me if DCC ends up making more money out of city centre church-goers than churches themselves will recieve from worshippers. Kenneth Brannan. 42 Greenlee Drive, Lochee.

Picture: Kim Cessford. Carols by Candlelight in St Paul’s Cathedral in December 2017. A correspondent argues Sunday parking charges will contribute to dwindling church attendance.