“"Council leader Philip Hickson said he felt this approach was good for business. He said the parking charges were not about making money for the council but about managing traffic flow."

What utter tosh! the council makes the best part of £2million a year profit on its parking which will be small comfort when there's no city centre left.

Why can't these people see further than the end of their own parochial noses?

"I know, let's introduce parking charges just as internet shopping takes off and large chains decide to relocate to retail parks..."

What's happening as a result of inner city parking charges is that people are changing their habits... and not coming into town at all.

Get rid of the parking meters NOW!”

“I thought this was a story about parking? Whats all the grief for?

Ever since the Westfield Centre opened, Derby's other shops have been really hit hard. I suppose it did not help that M&S etc moved into the Westfield, but now the Cathedral Quarter part of Derby is on its knees.... They need to reduce parking charges in my opinion to try and get people visit that part of town. It is far more attractive than St Peter's Street etc and it is a real shame that no-one could see this problem coming.”

“@JonBoyWalton"Do the councillors live in the real world?"Do you really have to ask that question?bolan.”

“Do the councillors live in the real world?

A town struggling to ATTRACT shoppers is going to remove the short stay parking in order to FORCE people to stay longer.

What a ludicrous proposition. They should be looking at improvements to the city that will ENCOURAGE shoppers to stay longer.

But then I supopse you have to look at the kind of shopper they want to attract. Do they want to attract the local shoppers who want to pick up a small but regular set of items (Say, some fresh fruit & veg, a nice bit of fish from the guildhall market), or do they want to attract more distant shoppers who are going to spend 3-4 hours browsing in Westfield?

Based on their proposals I think I can guess.”

“PROPER CITIES LIKE NOTTINGHAM SHEFFIELD AND MANCHESTER HAVE A BENDIBUS”

“by jeff_libdem
"Parking prices should reflect the quality of Air in the places they are situated. Put simply drivers should be priced out of the City Centre."


Yes, great idea, lets totally kill the city centre and close what shops are left, drive all the busineses out of town, and have nice clean air in our totally empty dead city centre.

Typical lib dem policy - ill conceived and not thought through.”

“The problem is that in the countryside some places have only about 8 or even less buses a day, and with this recession they are trying to reduce these.
So these country people are coming to places like Spondon, filling up the car parks and travelling into the city centre on their bus passes, using it as an unofficial park & ride.
As a result of this the suburban shops are suffering, because locals cannot park, so more & more people shop at Asda or other supermarkets.
What Derby needs is more official park & rides & cheaper parking for City's residents, and outsiders can pay the full prise at the machine.”

“I often nip into town for a 30 minute visit and have to pay for the full hour. The Cathedral Quarter would benefit from Tiger_Shark's idea of free parking for short visits. I don't think this Council has any idea of how to enliven trade in this area of Derby, when to many people it's obvious. Revitalise the Guild Hall Market by encouraging a variety of good quality (that doesn't mean over-priced) traders, including a modern, hygenic fish market. Instead, what do you do, up the price of parking so no-one will bother visiting! No wonder we all shop at Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. It's free parking whilst we shop there!”

“Hi Wafty
I paid fifty quid last year in fines that I shall avoid this year by having to pay for at least 2 hours parking. As I mentioned earlier, I don't stay on average for more than 90 mins in Derby therefore this year I'll save on the fines. As I don't plan to increase the number of times I shop in Derby with my car, the saving in fines more than compensates for this increase in charges.”

“nice one jeff - force the cars out of the city and watch all the shops close down - good to see that you fit so well with the other libdems when it comes to sensible policies for the real world.....”