CAR PARK CHARGES

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Derby City Council revealed that above-inflation increases in car parking charges would give it an extra £270,000 during the coming financial year. The increases vary from just under 7% to more than 14% and users of Parksafe car park in Bold Lane will be the hardest hit. People will pay 10p more for parking for up to an hour (£1.60), 20p extra for up to two hours (£2.70), 30p more for up to three hours (£3.30) and an extra 40p for up to four hours (£4.90). Beyond four hours, the prices rise more sharply, with drivers having to pay an extra £1.10 if they park for more than six hours, taking the total cost to £13.10.

People who use the Assembly Rooms will see similar price rises during the day but evening and Sunday charges will go up by just 10p for all durations to £1.60. Increases at Chapel Street car park and the long-stay car parks, such as Abbey Street and Darwin Place, will range from 10p to 50p. At the short-stay car parks, such as Ford Street and Wilmot Street, the rises will range from 10p to 90p. Parking at Chapel Street and at all long and short-stay car parks will remain free on Sundays. There will also be increases, ranging from 10p to 30p, at the various roadside meter parking spaces. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Mar/06)

Nobody wants to have to pay more for anything if they can avoid it. And the Derby City Council argument will be that if it does not seek extra revenue by increasing parking charges, it will only have to siphon off money from some other facility instead. But Mike Matthews, chairman of the city centre management team, gets it absolutely right when he points out - "Car park charges are an easy hit". Most of us have little choice in the matter. Bus services are, in many cases, inadequate for us to get to and from work on time, particularly for shiftworkers and those who work in the outlying suburbs of the city. So if we get clobbered with increased parking charges, we just have to bear it. But grin and bear it? Hardly. Derby's road commuters are now approaching the punch-drunk stage.

Parking charges continue to outstrip inflation. The introduction of traffic lights at Five Lamps has created unprecedented congestion and frustration on one of the busiest routes into the city. The London Road bridge closure has disrupted the normal travelling patterns of thousands of people. Murmurings continue to grow that this is some sort of conspiracy to make the life of the motorist intolerable. That takes a bit of swallowing, but the inability of council officials and councillors to ease the misery does nothing to bolster belief in their commitment to do so. And it's not just the drivers who are sounding off. Businesses are fearful of the threat to their turnover if shoppers decide to take their cars and their custom elsewhere to Nottingham, Sheffield or Leicester, for example, or to other Derbyshire towns such as Belper or Ripley which make the motorist feel more welcome.

While we're drawing comparisons, does anybody know of a similar-sized city which has a weedier park-and-ride system than Derby? Only two venues, and both on the eastern side of the city and one of those cannot operate whenever Derby County are playing at home, when traffic flows are bound to be greater! Isn't it a basic requirement of any park-and-ride network that all approaches to the city should be served? Now we learn the plans to base a service from the superhospital site in Mickleover have been put on hold. What a shambles it all is. It's time for us all to tell the local authority that motorists are tired of being treated as second-class citizens.

New parking restrictions for students and staff at University of Derby created chaos on the roads on the first day of term, according to furious residents as full-time students were barred from using the Kedleston Road campus car park, giving them the option to use the pay-and-display car park at Markeaton Park instead. But the Markeaton Park car park was half empty while neighbouring residential street Broadway was full of student cars parked on both sides of the road. Staff members were also told that they would have to pay 0.2% of their salary to use the Kedleston Road campus car park.

A university spokeswoman said, "We advise students from when they join that they don't need to bring cars as the halls of residence are within walking distance, and they have buses that pick students up and take them into campus. We've also bought in a subsidised bus service to encourage them to use public transport. We're sympathetic to the residents' situation and we do everything we can to promote other forms of transport as well as discouraging students from using the roads around the university. We cannot prevent students from parking where they are legally entitled to park, but we are in a Catch 22 situation - if we increase the car parking, it will increase the number of people driving into the city." In other words - TOUGH!

When I go to Dragons Health Club, I sometimes have to use the nearby council car park. I usually arrive at about 4.45pm and pay for two hours. I have been concerned for a while that the expiry time on my ticket was 6pm and not 6.45. I have now rung the council and was shocked to be told, even though I have only used the car park for one hour and 25 minutes, if I stay after 6pm and complete my two-hour stay, I have to pay an extra 60p. So, instead of paying £1.30 for two hours, which I normally pay for daytime parking, I will have to pay £1.90. I really feel that it is out of order that around 5pm, when shops are closing, I have to pay an increase in car parking charges. I know I would have the benefit of staying all evening but my requirements are to stay for two hours. Is this fair? Venita Parry

Another mindless parking charge. One morning I decided to do some early morning shopping and arrived at the Assembly Room car park at 7.36am, just over an hour later I tendered my ticket to the machine and was charged £2.90. On querying this I was told I was being charged the evening fee plus the going daytime rate. It would appear the "Evening" finishes at 8am the following day and the charges are advertised for all to see. How silly of me for not realising just how long an evening can be. So much for being an early riser and taking advantage of the early opening shops. Now don't even get me going on the Cockpit Island lights which only let a bus and two cars proceed off the Morledge at a time, nor to mention the new traffic-calming bus stop at Chellaston located a few yards before the traffic lights at the bottom of the High Street. And that brings me to the parking chaos that reigns outside the shops at Chellaston when the Tesco and other 40ft lorries are delivering, not helped by the cars continually parking on the pavement. P Brindley

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