Free Parking for Christmas Saturdays? Council says no.
December 15, 2008 2:21 PM
Hook Road car park, half empty, but displaying the Park Mark
Epsom's Lib Dem councillors are looking for innovative ways of re-launching Hook Road car park which is chronically underused but now the safest car park in the borough.
"With car parking income seriously below budget this year, it's impossible to make the car park free of charge, but we did hope the council would support our suggestion of making this car park free on the last two Saturdays before Christmas" said Cllr Alison Kelly (Lib Dem, Town).
The Lib Dems say the Park Mark sign (seen in blue on the photograph), is awarded by the Police to car parks that have achieved high standards. The car park is fully covered by CCTV, has good lighting, regular enforcement and security patrols, daily cleaning, an anti-graffiti regime and a new help-link to the central car park control centre.
"Sadly, Hook Road has never shed its reputation for being unsafe and we need to do something really innovative to persuade people to use it. We understand there been an increase in income from permit holders, but there's still plenty of empty space. We will be looking at ways of reducing the cost of parking but obviously if we cut charges something else will probably have to increase. If we can't make the car park pay for itself, it could well be sold off in the future. Other car parks in Epsom are full some of the time and we've now several blocks of flats which have almost no parking. We really do need Hook Road car park - it's just a question of persuading people to use it."