8th September 2010

DORCHESTER: Overnight parking charges scrapped

by Paul Crompton

BUSINESS leaders have welcomed the district council’s decision to allow free car parking in Dorchester as a step toward making the town “better for everybody”.

Charges in the Council’s car parks are being dropped on Sunday’s and between 7pm and 8am during a two-year period except in those along the coastal strip from West Bexington to Lyme Regis
West Dorset District Council’s Executive Committee succumbed to pressure from business groups to remove evening and Sunday parking charges in the area’s market towns starting from November 1st.
The initiative was achieved after a two-year campaign by Dorchester Business Improvement District (BID) and Dorchester Chamber of Commerce.
WDDC approved the plans to help local businesses and encourage visitors to the area.
Dorchester BID’s Phil Gordon said when they first held a BID ballot a lot of businesses had parking related concerns.
“I had a lot of concerned businesses coming to my attention who were struggling with evening trade because people were unhappy parking in evenings,” Mr Gordon said.
“This initiative will encourage more people to use the facilities such as pubs, restaurants, cafes and hopefully, conversely, encourage businesses to possibly extend their hours in the evening, some shops may decide to stay open maybe until 8pm to get the evening trade enjoying the free parking.
“The trade on Sunday needs encouraging and more and more shops open on Sunday now, but obviously it’s a big incentive to come to Dorchester if they don’t have to pay to park and again it’s up to the businesses to make the best of the situation.
“There’s been quite a lot of effort for quite some time and we are really, really delighted that the council are going to implement this, it was certainly a job made easier by the fact we had full support of the chamber of commerce.”
The move will hit WDDC’s coffers by £58,700 in the next year at a time when central government funding to councils is being cut. The overall budgeted income from car-park fees for 2010/11 is £2,316,000.
The council introduced charges for overnight parking (7pm - 8am) in 2005. Charges were: 30p in Yarn Barton Beaminster, 40p in Bridport and 50p in Dorchester.
Sunday charging had been in place for many years and charges are 20p for up to 2 hours and 30-50p all day.
President of Dorchester Chamber of commerce, Denise Addison, said: “This is something the chamber requested.
“This will also encourage people to come in and use the restaurants. It will encourage footfall to hotels, restaurants, pubs, cinemas, all these businesses owners will benefit.
“The more money which comes into the town the better for everybody. I hope the businesses and the council can see each other’s problems because obviously we are looking at it from the angle of increasing footfall and on the other hand the council have to raise money from various issues.
“This just shows the council and business community working together for the benefit of the town.”
Members also approved a new system of parking permits to be introduced in the car parks for hotel and guesthouse visitors. This new system would mean hotels and guest houses can buy scratch card style parking permits and issue them to their guests, allowing them to park until 9am.
West Dorset District Council Leader Robert Gould said: “We are pleased to approve plans to remove parking charges in most of our car parks during evenings and Sundays, to help support the local economy and bring visitors and shoppers from outside the district into West Dorset, as well as helping local residents.”

DORCHESTER: Overnight parking charges scrapped

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