The campaign to keep 2 hour free parking in Southwell has gained momentum. There is a new online petition to sign here. Already many local residents have signed.

A number of years ago, the Conservative District Council tried to introduce car park charges. The Town Council then agreed to pay a sum now over £7,000 a year from Southwell’s Council Tax to the District to keep a 2 hour ‘free parking’ period for visitors.

A number of prominent Conservatives have regularly attacked this agreement. Now there is another proposal to ‘equalise’ charges with the much larger town of Newark’s charges. Even last night at the District Council, a Conservative Councillor said that the Liberal Democrats are ‘muddying the waters preventing the [Tory] Council taking the correct decision on car parking’.

The Conservatives appear to have changed their minds after a significant local campaign but now say that they will not introduce car parking charges ‘whilst economic conditions are so difficult’. So expect this matter to appear again when the local economy improves – an improvement which I hope will be very soon.

Two hour free parking brings in shoppers and visitors to our local shops. As a consequence of the low charges in the District Council’s car parks, the County Council [at the Library] and Greene King [at the Saracen’s Head] have similar charges. If the N&SDC increase their charges other car parks will follow suit.

Sign the petition in local shops in Southwell or online here

   Leave a comment