NEWS that Sefton Council is to review the controversial residential parking permit scheme will come as an enormous relief to many embattled town centre homeowners.
With purse strings tightening and fuel costs rocketing, the proposals to axe the biennial £20 fee will afford them an ever-so-slight breather from the soaring cost of owning a motor vehicle.
Not so good news, however, for residents, visitors and town-centre businesses who will be reeling from the authority’s announcement to review parking charges in Southport over the Summer.
The Visiter campaigned to throw out planned increases to on and off-street town centre charges in February – but now Sefton has proposed the first of what they label a “programme of increases”.
Tourist-friendly it most certainly isn’t, and the real losers are the many independent businesses which rely on people flooding to the town.
With shopping complexes north, east and south competing for trade, parking in the resort should be solely a way of ensuring high turnover of visitors to local shops, bars and restaurants.
The price hike at the NCP will net the council £42,000 – but the cost to small town centre traders, such as the likes of those on Wesley Street – could be incalculable.
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