Free Parking IN Torquay….Part Deux

A few posts below, I took the Council of Devon in the UK to task for assuming that lowering the parking fees would bring business into the area around Torquay in Southwest England. Manny, "The Bull" Resores, of the Parking Consultancy took me to task:

 

Come on John, haven't you heard that the UK is also badly suffering from the economic downturn? All the things you mentioned are good, but they take time and substantial investment.

In the meantime why criticize the Council's initiative to help hard up shoppers by reducing parking charges, any positive measures that can assist with getting the economy moving should be welcomed and not put down.

Well done Devon, let's have more Councils do the same!

Manny Rasores

 

Let's see if I'm clear on this – Times are tough. So therefore we should abandon sensible measures and provide free parking, in a way to "assist in getting the economy moving."

 

From my point of view, providing 'free' or reduced rate parking will do little but help those working in the area to find parking at a lower cost and take spaces from people who want to come to the town to shop. Get the economy moving. I don't see it. The area will be harmed as parking will become scarce, and people will go elsewhere to shop and play.

 

Don't believe me, ask the folks at the National Health Service what has happened since they "took care of their poor sick patients" and provided free parking. Read about it here. If you don't want to click on the link, suffice it to say that the magnanimous NHS has destroyed the parking at local hospitals in Scotland and now there is no place for patients and staff to park. The famous law of unintended consequences is in full effect.

 

Now – what would happen in Torquay if the local authority set up a program to revitalize the area – clean up parks, better sidewalks, new store fronts, maybe a concert or whatever. No money to pay for it? Why not use the money generated from the parking fees. And tell people what you are doing. Folks would realize that the money they were paying for parking was going to something useful beside the Lordmayor's new desk, and feel like they were plowing something back into the community. Jobs would be immediately created in the construction phase, long term prosperity would come to the area when the upgrade was finished. In the mean time, contests could be held with designers coming from hither and yon to propose different schemes to help the area. The winning design….well you get the idea.

 

Of course, you could just do nothing and lower parking fees and like the NHS, drive visitors away.

 

I would like to hear from any neighborhood which had pay parking and then free parking was instituted. Ask the merchants in the area just how much it helped. In every case I know if, and have commented on in these spaces, the exact opposite has happened, and the merchants have acknowledged that removing parking fees has caused more problems than it solved.

 

JVH

 

 

 

Comments

[Manny Rasores]

Let's put the record straight JVH.
I will reply to your comments by making some necessary corrections. Firstly, I think after all the years you have known me is not too much to ask my name is spelled correctly as "Rasores" and not Resores. Although I appreciate the name is rare, an "e" is not an "a" and the International Rasores clan are very proud of it. I also should mention that technically "The Bull" comes after Rasores and not before and the consultancy name is Mr. Parking Consultancy and not "Parking Consultancy"
Now that I have got this small but important matter off my chest, I also want to make some corrections to some of your comments.
For the record, I am not sure you read my comments properly as i did not say that because of the economic downturn public parking providers should abandon any sensible measures and parking should be free. On the contrary I stated that all the suggestions you originally made were good but they would take time and investment. In any case Devon Council has not provided free for all parking, what they have done is to reduce the weekend charges only, this I believe was a good measure as most office workers do not work during the weekend and the people that will most benefit will be shoppers and not office workers. I know that some of the weekend workers will benefit from this short term arrangement, but I am also confident if it is decided to keep the arrangements for longer, Devon Parking services will look at altering the tariff to prevent abuse.
Whether we in the parking market like it or not, we have to recognise that shoppers are watching their pennies more than ever and if the parking charges are high many are not visiting the high street to shop and instead go to out of town shopping malls where parking is free. We have all seen over the last 12 months the pressure that retailers have been under and this has resulted in huge discounts to attract customers. I consider it a positive that parking space providers look at how they can also do their bit no matter how small in the scheme of things. I don't need to be told that a small temporary parking tariff reduction will not on its own encourage visitors, but combined with retailers' discounts and special events will make the overall shopping visit more appealing and will attract more visitors.

As you mentioned the deterioration created with the introduction of free hospital parking in Scotland, I want to also let you know that this a very emotive issue here in the UK and of course the local politicians also got involved. In my capacity of Consultant I have always stated to my hospital clients that free for all parking is not the right course of action to correct the many problems and huge public resentment experienced. I and many others like me have always stated that parking controls and charges are necessary as this will regulate demand and abuse by others not visiting the hospital. I have also stated that in order to minimise the bad feeling from genuine hospital visitors, that concessionary tariff discounts should be introduced for patients and visitors and be properly controlled.

Try to justify high hospital parking charges to a cancer or other long term patient or family that during many months of treatment they should be paying extortionate daily parking charges of around $20 for a few hours in London.

With reference to Torbay Council where Torquay is located you will see by looking at their website ://www.torbay.gov.uk/ they are trying to do a lot of positive things for the town, residents, retailers and visitors and as previously stated well done that parking is also taking part and doing its bit to combat the credit crunch.

Manny Rasores de Toro
Mr Parking Consultancy
England UK

[JVH]

Oh Manny -- Take a deep breath. No matter what consultants say, politicians will screw up parking. The law of unintended consequences has kicked in, and the hospitals are hurting because of it. A simple validation program, as you suggest, would solve the problem.
As for Torquay -- Free parking is NEVER the solution to ANY problem in the community. It will only make it worse. I'm glad that the local authority is trying to fix up the place, but the money could come from parking fees.

See you in Birmingham -- Oh -- Mr. Rasores de Toro (Sorry about the misspelling -- I never get names right.

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