NEWPORT PARKING: Sign up and support our free parking campaign

11:50am Friday 4th January 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Will Bain

SIGNING UP: John Horton signs the petition watched by Jon Powell, of The Kiosk, High Street, Newport Sign up and support our free parking campaign SIGNING UP: John Horton signs the petition watched by Jon Powell, of The Kiosk, High Street, Newport Sign up and support our free parking campaign

SHOPPERS and traders in Newport have just a few more days to sign our petition to “Keep City Parking Free.”

The petitions will close online and be collected on Wednesday so they can be counted and verified before being handed to Newport council.

At the most recent count, more than 4,000 people had signed our petitions urging Newport City Council to reverse its decision to axe the scheme which lets shoppers to park for free in all its city centre car parks for the first two hours of their stay.

The decision upset traders, who said it was the final nail in the city centre’s coffin with shoppers threatening to head to nearby Cwmbran Shopping or Spytty Retail Park, where parking is free, instead of the city centre if charges are reintroduced.

The council’s only official response to these concerns came in November when cabinet member for infrastructure, Cllr Ken Critchley, described the scheme as unsustainable.

Cllr Critchley, said: “Free parking costs the council almost £1 million a year which is no longer sustainable at a time when central budgets are facing significant cuts and we face a funding gap next year of £8 million.

“To continue to offer free parking would adversely impact on other services such as street cleaning, waste collection and road repairs.”

The council seems unlikely to be able to recoup this figure given its estimates are based on the money being brought in in 2010 before the free parking was introduced.

Then a three hour stay cost £3 and a two hour stay £2, both of which will now be a pound.

The Cambrian car park, the council’s biggest, also closed on New Year’s Eve to allow work to begin on the Cambrian Road development and the Market car park remains closed as work on the new bus terminal continues.

How to join the campaign

Sign our petition online

Download a petition form

IF YOU would like to sign our petition you can do so by visiting any of these businesses:

● AD Turner and Sons butchers

● Anthony Bingham jewellers

● Arnolds

● Assets jewellery

● Bethan

● Clive Mortimer jewellers

● City Fashions

● Freestyle

● Hello Hello

● Kriminal Records

● Jeffries jewellery

● Mr Fruit

● Negative Zone

● Needham’s fishmongers

● Nesta’s Niche

● Paul Gentile jewellers

● Shotts

● Specsavers

● Suit U

● The Cross Keys

● The Elbow Room

● The Kiosk

● The Potters pub

● Timspon

● Toy Army

● The Wardrobe

● Wildings

Comments(15)

Mr Bump. says...
1:07pm Fri 4 Jan 13

I;m more than happy to pay a pound for parking so will not be signing any petition.

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areyour4real says...
1:36pm Fri 4 Jan 13

Go on Mr Bump, you tell 'em!

Don't stand for the Argus trying to run this town with their own agenda just to sell their paper!

I'm happy to pay a quid to park for 3 hours.

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D Taylor says...
4:18pm Fri 4 Jan 13

For there to be any point to this petition there would have to be Council run car parks. The only one left of any size is Park Square.

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Exile Elmo says...
5:29pm Fri 4 Jan 13

Can I have the address at the argus personnel department to send the 30 council cv's to cover the cost of the job cuts to pay for the free parking this year? maybe another 30 the year after and until 2018. cheers..

stop stirring to prop up your falling sails and get back to reporting cats stuck up trees

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Woodgnome says...
5:44pm Fri 4 Jan 13

Exile Elmo wrote:
Can I have the address at the argus personnel department to send the 30 council cv's to cover the cost of the job cuts to pay for the free parking this year? maybe another 30 the year after and until 2018. cheers..

stop stirring to prop up your falling sails and get back to reporting cats stuck up trees
"falling sails" you must be a matelot!!

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Strider says...
5:50pm Fri 4 Jan 13

Argus how about you report something worthwhile like the M4 Consultation which we where supposed to be told before Christmas!!

Bobby Bright isn't going to give free parking, besides when the Passport Office leaves in February they can blame them for killing off the Town Centre

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Exile Elmo says...
6:27pm Fri 4 Jan 13

Woodgnome wrote:
Exile Elmo wrote:
Can I have the address at the argus personnel department to send the 30 council cv's to cover the cost of the job cuts to pay for the free parking this year? maybe another 30 the year after and until 2018. cheers..

stop stirring to prop up your falling sails and get back to reporting cats stuck up trees
"falling sails" you must be a matelot!!
that's taken the wind out of mine. I hope my sentiment wasn't lost

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JoJoJoJo says...
6:35pm Fri 4 Jan 13

Isn't this just "flogging a dead horse"?
There's 140,000+ people living in Newport so why only 4000 signatures?
Obviously everyone has given up caring and taken up shopping elsewhere. Being a creature of habit is human nature, people already shop outside the town (city?), it's unlikely they'll change back whether is free to park or not. I expect people who actually want to drive to town and shop there will happily pay £1 so why bother?

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Mike0408 says...
9:30pm Fri 4 Jan 13

i am not happy with the free parking being taken away and i am not happy with their other plan on where the retailers have to give the customer the £1 back if they spend over a certain amount in their stores, but agree the council are not going to care about anyone signing anything.

newport is going down the drain anyway, all business are closing down as the council have increased the business rates which the retailers simply cant afford.

free parking is pretty much the only thing that was keeping me shopping in the city center and with me working in newport i am unhappy that i now have to pay for parking while working, makes me what to look to work else were, not all of us are made of money unlike most of you other rich **** out there, must be an easy life for you lot.

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bluebanana says...
10:29pm Fri 4 Jan 13

Basically - if you can afford to run a car, you can afford to pay £1 to park your car. Unfortunately, even in the prosperous parts of England that I visit now and again, people still don't like paying 60p or £1 to park their £30k+ car that does 30mpg. I just think people are delusional when they think that parking should be free and located as close as possible to the place where they need to go i.e. right outside the door because they're too lazy to walk for 60 seconds.

I see it all over the country - actual FREE car parks 1 minute away are empty because people want to park on the road, right outside the shops on double yellow lines!

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D Taylor says...
12:12am Sat 5 Jan 13

The business rate is set by the Welsh Government , not Newport City Council.

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smokintheweed says...
2:00am Sat 5 Jan 13

I do not drive and I shop in Newport. It costs me a £3 round trip on the bus. Quibbling over a quid is pathetic and as someone else mentioned; if you can afford to run a car then a pound won't make a dent in your wallet.

This is a total non story, only 2.7% care according to the SWA and those are the only ones who found could be bothered to sign their name.

How are they even in business since they publish most of the stories online?

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Mike0408 says...
4:06pm Sat 5 Jan 13

its £1 for 3 hours.. not £1 for all day, i wouldnt mind if it was £1 for all day, but after 3 hours i bet the price would be relay high, whats the price for 9 hours?? as this is the amount of hours i work per day. i cant afford to loose about 1 hour of my pay on parking.

also £1 could but i dent in your wallet, how do you know what everyones financial situation is?? i can only just afford to run my car and its not even an expensive car, its a little run around that's prob not even worth £500. the things that killing me is the insurance (over £1300 a year), then there are house bills to pay, call that £600 a month (that's inc rent and council tax) so that's an extra £7200 a year on top of £1300 and even if i pay £1 a day that works out as £336 a year so in total £8836 a year and i think that's almost all my money gone, and i cant get rid of my car as i need it work work.

it all adds up in the long run

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Mr Bump. says...
6:11pm Sat 5 Jan 13

Mike, more absolute drivel, you work 336 days a year, 9 hours a day and only earn 9k? Really? If i was you i'd get rid of that car and either get a pushbike a bus pass or walk. Better still i'd find new employment because it seems your employers are breaking the law by paying you less than the minimum wage.

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portforever says...
6:21pm Sat 5 Jan 13

cant believe anyone cares if its a pound or not , nothing there worth going to anyway, come and see us at newport retail park, now thats real shopping,,,

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