An increase in parking charges led to no decrease in footfall in Spalding, a councillor has claimed.
Coun Henry Bingham was responding to a call for more free parking in the area at a meeting of South Holland District Council last week.
Coun Thomas Sneath was himself referencing the Spalding Business Improvement District (BID) manager previously stating it could look into funding other free parking after looking at the results of a recent trial for up to four hours free parking in Vine Street car park on Wednesdays in the run up to Christmas.
The BID subsidised the cost to the authority.
Coun Sneath asked if it could be rolled out to other areas of South Holland.
Coun Bingham responded: “It would be lovely to give free car parking to South Holland but the ten per cent council tax rise to pay for it wouldn’t be well placed at this moment in time.
“The uptake in car parking has been steady in the last few years even though it was said when we last put them up there would be a massive decline. It wasn’t the case.
“The parking measures make it cheaper to park for you to work in Spalding than it does at Springfields if you take up the season passes.
“They allow people to have more accessibility to the town at a cheaper rate if they want to buy them.
“It’s not in my power to give free parking in all car parks in Spalding and economically I don’t think we can afford to do so.”
