'Car park rises will hit trade' (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

'Car park rises will hit trade'

7:20am Friday 5th October 2012 in News

A STOURPORT man angered by the hike in parking charges in Wyre Forest has set up a petition in a bid to get the increase scrapped.

Parking charges at car parks owned by Wyre Forest District Council went up from Monday but resident Michael de Groot wants it overturned as he fears local trade could be effected if it leads to people avoiding the towns.

Mr de Groot, of Stourport, is hoping to get 2,000 people to sign his petition so he can take it to the district council.

“The objective is to get the increase reversed,” Mr de Groot explained. “I think it’s really important to get it overturned.

They shouldn’t have increased it.

“If I get enough signatures, the hope is that I can get a debate started at Wyre Forest District Council.”

He added: “it’s not realistic to expect people to pay extra for parking when the economy is the way it is. There are more and more people who are unemployed and people are hard up.

“If you want them to come to the shops and spend money the thing you don’t do is put the car parking prices up.”

Conservative Marcus Hart, the district council’s cabinet member for environmental services, said it was the first time in 18 months parking had gone up in the district, however.

“As part of the car parking review we had about 18 months or so ago, we decided not to put parking charges up in October last year,” he added.

“All of the car parking income goes back into a revenue budget and it’s used for services to people in Wyre Forest.”

People can sign Mr de Groot’s petition on line at change.org/ en-GB/petitions/stop-carparkcharge-increase-in-wyre-forest.