Car park charges

Published: 9:20 AM February 16, 2009 Updated: 9:34 PM October 10, 2020

HAVING spent most of last year chasing people away from Lowestoft by charging car parking at minimum charges of �3 and �4, Tory-led Waveney District Council now wants to increase the hourly charging rate by 10p.

This would appear to be the logic used: 'We have not made enough money from our car parks so we have not been charging enough.'

I would suggest that the reason that they have not made enough from car parks is because the car parks are empty most of the time and why is this? It is because they are currently too expensive.

In these times of recession it would be more sensible for the council to reduce or even remove car parking charges to try to stimulate an up turn in trade on our very hard hit shopping centres along London Road South and North and along the High Street.

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A week or so ago we were told how the Tory-led Suffolk County Council are going to spend �1m on Waveney transport schemes. This amount of �1m is to be spent on a pedestrian bridge at Oulton Broad railway crossing and a few cycle paths, it even includes �30,000 for improving a bridle way. Tell me where can I park my horse when I go shopping in Lowestoft town centre and how much will it cost me?

Here in Lowestoft we have main roads with serious pot holes. It would have been more sensible for Suffolk County Council to have used the �1m for the maintenance of our existing roads and not on cycle paths. Is the council not aware that there is a significant population of retired people in Waveney who, I am sure, would prefer to be able to do some shopping in town without having to take it home on the handle bars.