Monday 4 April 2011

Lets talk about the Tenbury Palmers Car Park

Cllr Joe Watson, asked the Tenbury Town Council to talk to as many people as possible about the possibility of introducing a small charge for parking on Palmers Meadow Car Park.

Although the Council have been putting away a sum of money each year for the eventual resurfacing, the figure has not been increased in line with inflation.  Unless much larger sums are saved in the future by increasing the precept the Council would not be able to pay for the resurfacing when it is required.

Whilst most peoples initial reaction is that there shouldn't be a charge, some change their mind when considering the full facts.



The car park is mostly used by people who don't live in Tenbury, so the very people who are paying for it, don't use it.  In most places people who drive to work have to pay to park their cars.  Many of the people who work in Tenbury, and drive to work, don't live here so again they are making use of a facility they don't pay for.

It would be possible to have schemes, such as residents permits, season tickets, refund of charges when using the pool or when spending above a certain amount at the shops. All ideas are worth considering.

Even a small charge multiplied by the 91 spaces over a period of a year would bring in substantial revenues.

For instance: 91 Spaces @ £1 a day for 312 days would bring in £28,392, even with partial occupancy and several discount schemes the revenue could be significant.

I believe the question of who uses a facility and who pays for it should be extended to all the Town Council's facilities.

The Town Council only appear to receive £5 a year income for the skip area, although Severn Waste have included in their budget (and therefore in their tender to WCC) the cost of building and running a new waste facility for Tenbury.

We all pay for the Tennis Courts, the Bowling Green, the Rugby & Football pitches etc, but how many of us use them?  There has been a move by both the Tennis Club and the Bowling club to fund some of the maintenance and repairs themselves, and this is to be welcomed as these facilities which appear to be used by relatively few cost many thousands a year in maintenance but bring in significantly less in income.

All (sensible) comments are welcome.

Tenbury Advertiser

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

The first thing the Council should do is charge a proper amount for the Rubbish site. Even just £12 a day would be over £4000 a year. Look at how many parking spaces it uses!
How much ground rent does the gym pay? That was built under Teme Rural Challenge and they rent the ground off Town Council.

Ian said...

The Council needs to undertake a thorough review of ALL its charging activity.

@WR15 said...

I'm hoping that the new Council will undertake such a review. Some effort was made during last year, but a thorough far reaching review of all the assets and opportunities need to be examined. It would also be helpful if the results were published in such a way that future Cllrs didn't have to needlessly cover the same ground.

Anonymous said...

if we start paying in palmers nobody will come to tenbury.

Anonymous said...

nobody comes to tenbury now so what difference will that make

Anonymous said...

If no one comes, why is the carpark so often full.

Anonymous said...

o and another note its full of the STAFF at all the shops

Anonymous said...

BECAUSE IT IS THE SHOP WORKERS THAT FULLS IT

Anonymous said...

How much do the buses pay to park outside the swimming pool?

frequentmover said...

I would be interested in knowing how much the current 'charged' area of car parking raises 'net' of all admin, staffing, accounting etc charges.

Whilst in principle the 'blog hosts' sums of £91 per day times 312 days per year suggests an income of £28,000 - this is a 'gross' figure and I suspect the net would be considerably lower. If we add residents permits etc with all of the admin costs involved this would decrease even further.

On figures I have seen in other areas of the country - net could be below 20p in the pound. The car is quite heavily used - where would those cars go? they would doubtless park around the various housing developments, then council would need to spend more on parking enforcement etc.

For every action there is a re-action, this would be hard to anticipate. I have suspicions that the true cost of charging for parking would be a loss of net income for the town.

Anonymous said...

dont you think the council gets enough money off us with out paying in the palmers.

@WR15 said...

If you live in the Tenbury Ward then you are already paying for the Palmers Car Park through the Tenbury precept part of your Council Tax. Many people who do pay for the car park, live locally so don't use it, whilst most of the people who do use it, live further away so don't pay.

Ian said...

" . . .whilst most of the people who do use it, live further away so don't pay". How do you know? Has a survey been undertaken of car park use/users?

@WR15 said...

A very valid point. I think it's a working assumption, but will need to be "tested".

For the record I haven't made up my mind yet, but welcome the "conversation" as I think all the Town Council "Services" need to be examined to see if they meet the test to find the balance of "Service to the Town" with "Individual Costs"

Ian said...

We are certainly agreed on that!
As for the geographical origin of the car park users - I have always presumed that they were predominantly local people. Again - I have no evidence whatsoever, so we are both in the same boat. It would be interesting to have a survey!

Anonymous said...

When will they be discussing charging a proper rent for the waste site? Why are they subsidising this service?

@WR15 said...

The MHDC Burgage Car Park (37 Spaces) raises in the region of £18,000 a year. (Based on 2008 figures) This is a gross figure. I don't have any details about Pay machine maintenance costs of enforcement costs.