'If we can't park for free it should at least be competitive'

It did end on a particularly eventful note. I spent Valentines Day in a beautiful car park in Southampton due to a road traffic accident.

As I paid for two hours parking, whilst awaiting rescue, something clicked. Melton’s car parking fees need to be reviewed. RIGHT NOW!

To put it in perspective, Amazon Prime is £8.99 a month and includes unlimited next day delivery on any qualifying products.

Meanwhile, parking in a Melton Borough Council-owned car park is £2.80. That’s £11.20 a month if you do one 2-hour trip a week.

Plus any app fees you may have to pay on top because the parking machines are broken.

Melton’s car-parking is also pricier than other market towns in Leicestershire.

This is what neighbouring towns charge for two hours parking – Market Harborough £1.50, Loughborough £2, Grantham £2.50, Ashby de la Zouch £1.05, Oadby and Wigston council car parks £1.50, Syston free.

What’s the result of Melton being more expensive? People choose to go elsewhere and take their money with them.

We know from the three-week free parking period that car parking fees affect footfall.

I ran a survey on My Melton and 72.6 per cent of people who responded said they visited the town more often in that period compared to normal.

And 80.4 per cent of respondents stated they spent more time in town while 77.8 per cent stated they spent more money in town.

The kicker is that MBC’s cabinet have access to the data because I sent them a report with said data and that’s without the report that the Melton BID did about how it affected takings of local businesses.

It’s frustrating to know that the cabinet have the data and aren’t doing anything with it.

The businesses and event organisers deserve better. If we can’t make parking free, it should, at least, be competitive with the area. It’s what our businesses and event organisers deserve.

PS: two hours parking in Southampton was £2.50, which is 30p cheaper than Melton.

**We put Kelly’s points to Melton Borough Council and leader Pip Allnatt said in response: “Free parking on a permanent basis would remove a vital source of income that is required to maintain and improve our car parks whilst reducing availability across the day. Without that income, these costs would have to be met by all Council Tax payers, including those who do not use the car parks. Local residents would be paying more Council Tax to subsidise visitors.”

He added: “We thank Kelly for the surveys she undertook following the free parking period last year. This information was utilised alongside general feedback direct to the council as well as robust footfall data provided by the BID to consider the impact of the free parking period. As with all policy decisions taken by the council there is a fine balance to strike. One thing that was clear from the footfall data provided by the BID is that there was no clear increase in footfall within the town when compared to the five weeks before the free parking came into effect, but we do appreciate it may have positively impacted some businesses within the town.”