In reply to Mr Hamilton-Warwick (Have Your Say, October 10) regarding the Bournemouth town centre master plan, an empty car parking space today can’t be sold tomorrow and surface car parks have 93 million miles of headroom.
Even full car parks offer little beauty other than their practicality.
The Bournemouth chamber has worked hard, with the council , to re-align the town’s marketing of its parking offer – parking and enforcement generates £6 million, thus keeping council tax as low as practicable.
The free two hours – BCTC only requested one hour – is a start and, we all believe, a positive story.
This trial is not for the “holiday business” as Mr Hamilton-Warwick observes – the trial period runs from October to New Year’s Day.
The chamber works closely with town centre businesses and it is through the council’s Recession Fund that this trial is possible.
Good uptake should see further free parking and better offers.
Retailers at shopping parks pay for the parking provision there through their rents which is passed, of course, to the consumer so one does pay in all out of town shopping centres, one way or the other Nigel P Hedges, president, Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce
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