Car park to be open longer and cost less

by Lisa Reeves

Tuesday 9^th June 2015

Tue 9^th Jun 2015

Cheshire East Council is extending the opening hours of a car park in the town centre and reducing the cost of all-day parking for commuters.

Starting on Monday 22nd June, the Spring Street multi-storey car park will be open until 10pm, compared with 7pm previously. The car park will open at 7.am as usual.

The cost of all-day parking will be reduced by 22 per cent from £5.50 to £4.30.

Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Cheshire East Council, said: "This should be a big help to commuters who may arrive back late by train as well as other all-day parkers who will benefit from reduced costs.

"It's all part of our ongoing drive to put residents first and boost trade in our town centres."

Councillor Rod Menlove added "'This is a welcome initiative at a time when our main commuter car park in Broadway Meadow is full. Too many visitors seem unaware of this car park off Water Lane so I am pressing for adequate direction and information signage so that these attractive low charging rates are obvious to all."

Tags:: Spring Street Car Park

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Gary Barton

Tuesday 9^th June 2015 at 4:53 pm

This is good news and a further positive step in solving the problems caused by all-day commuter parkers on residential roads. £5.50 was always an unrealistic price for parking. The solution cannot be only to punish people who are just trying to get to work or use the station, there has to be give and take. If yellow lines go down, there has to be a reasonable alternative.

DELETED ACCOUNT

Tuesday 9^th June 2015 at 7:19 pm

This carpark is at least half a mile from the railway station and commuters would have to wait at either of the junctions to cross. Typically this carpark is used by office workers, and a more probable scenario is that there is a glut of empty office space in Wilmlsow which can't be rented because of inadequate parking. If our Council was really concerned about parking for the station then they would make the two carparks closes to the station and the Hoopers/Sainsbury's carparks cheaper - but this they will not do.

Kiesha Humphreys

Tuesday 9^th June 2015 at 11:38 pm

This car park is unsightly and a nuisance to people who live nearby is keeping it open later going to mean that there is on site security to prevent its current usage as a late night hang out/ race track?

Dave Cash

Wednesday 10^th June 2015 at 3:27 am

Will Spring St remain 'Free after 3'?
It is a sensible car park to attract Town centre workers away from surrounding residential street parking IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT, but probably not suitable for most shoppers, as IIRC most of the ground floor bays are allocated to long term Contract holders.
Neither is it suitable for rail commuters, based on distance from station and fact that parking is not avail overnight, without risk of an expensive PCN.
I regard Broadway Meadow as the logical overflow for the station car park, as it allows overnight parking for up to 5 days, at a daily rate, so convenient for a weekend Capital Break, but it does need better security, provided by overnight lighting and 24/7 CCTV.
IMO all Wilmslow car parks and poss all CEC car parks should have a similar charging structure for upto 24hr parking.
eg 60p for 1hr
£1.10 for up to 2 hrs
and subs hours required - not to exceed 50p / hr.
Long term parking, in excess of normal daily opening times, could be adjusted as required

Lynne Prescott

Wednesday 10^th June 2015 at 2:31 pm

Anything that might relieve pressure on Broad meadow is to be welcomed. On a recent trip to London, both Broad Meadow and station car- park were full after doing several circuits. As I didn't required an overnight stay and didn't have time to go home park and get a taxi back, I made the best of a very limited set of options, found a place in Broad meadow which although not a space enabled me to park without causing any obstruction and paid the appropriate fee. When I got back the next evening, I found not one but two parking fines on my car - one at 16.39 and one at 10.00 the next evening, which I thought was a bit greedy!
It'll be the taxi for from now on!

Nadine Tipping

Wednesday 10^th June 2015 at 2:34 pm

I agree with Gary Barton that more thought should have been put into commuter parking before the yellow lines went down causing the problems we have... Whilst the later opening of Spring St Car Park is a step in the right direction, it is still a distance from the station and when your dropping kids at school and then doing the commute into Manchester it does make it very tight for time! In my opinion more needs to be done. There is some space at the back of broadway meadow that could be cleared and made into additional spaces. Also the long stay at the back of Sainsbury's simply isn't big enough. The spaces at the back of the library need converting to long stay spaces ,as this seems to be rarely used by the short stay customers.
Also the building / maintenance work happening at the station means a number of spaces are unavailable there too. When is this due to finish? Shouldn't some additional long stay spaces have been made available whilst that work was being carried out?