On 08 Jan 2009 23:11:30 GMT Andrew Gabriel wrote :
As Derek said, parking charges are simply a big sign
saying **** Off, and so people do because they don't
like being spoken to in that way. Retailers know it;
it's just councils who are clueless. It does't matter
how small the charge is -- that's not the point.

You're right, it's a psychological thing. People (myself
included back in the UK) would spend 30p to drive to a large
Tesco with free parking rather than put 20p in a meter.

The answer is simple. Reverse the current system so that
councils keep business rates instead of central government and
all parking revenue goes to central government funds.

This done, local councils would start thinking about the
minimum level of parking enforcement required to ensure safety
and traffic flow, and where parking does need to be rationed
by price, how cheap can they make it. Meanwhile councils who
are losing serious money over shut-down Woolworths etc would
make it clear to their planners that they should work
positively with anyone who might wish to reopen it.

Meanwhile back in the real world, just to further the decline
of my old home of Twickenham, LBRuT has this bright notion of
charging owners of higher-CO2 cars more to park.

--
Tony Bryer, 'Software to build on' from Greentram
www.superbeam.co.uk www.superbeam.com www.greentram.com