Chamber of trade chief urges council to cut Blackburn parking charges (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Many wise words spoken at that meeting.

The stupid road system + exorbitant parking charges mean I never shop in Blackburn.

First they closed Church Street, then they made a mockery of King Street and the area around the college buildings.. I have lived in Blackburn all my life but I now find myself driving around in circles, to try to get anywhere near the parts of the Town Centre that I need to get to.. So I nearly allways just go to Preston or Manchester instead..

Been into Blackburn shopping centre three times in three years. One of those times with my disabled daughter using her blue badge. Guess what? There was a parking ticket on the windscreen on our return, later rescinded after protest, not guilty of a parking offence. I definitely won't be going again anytime soon. Nothing worth going in for anyway.

Councillor Andy Kay, executive member for resources, said: “The council does not control the shopping centre parking charges, only on street parking and the Freckleton Street multi-storey.”

Is that not because you have sold the rights to the like's of NCP on a fixed term contract?
Either way Andy the town is stuffed because common sense never had a chance to prevail, people go to the shops in their cars and blackburn has made it more difficult year on year to get around the town in a car never mind parking.
I'm affraid your sweeping water uphill from now on.

It was only last week that a report showed 15% of retail space is empty in Blackburn. Surely those in the Ivory Tower can see the corealation!!!

Within 50yrds of the town hall front steps there are over 15 empty shops!!

Wake up and realise what you have done to this once bustling market town and reverse your decisions ASAP

Blackburn has been stictched up by this. It goes back to 'outsourcing' the running of parking enfocement to Capita several years ago. Once you work in the overheads of enforcing parking (incl;wages, uniforms, ZEAG machines, etc) it fails to bring in anywhare near the revune that could be brought in by having free parking.

You have also removed hundreds of on street parking bays slowly over the years, to force Blackburn people to line the pockets of Capita and Zeag at the the expense of or local shops by having to use your totally unecessary, expensive and stupidly designed multi-story next to waves.

What is that quote about it bringing in as much as council tax!! No way.

It is not a level playing feild anymore. The small family owned independents such as Mercers, could not compete with the likes of BandQ, Matalan, Next on the Townsmoor reatil park.
Why not start charging to park on the Cinema, Townsmoor to offset FREE parking in the CBD???

Why not MAKE Tesco have a free park and ride shuttle from the massive new store into the town centre??

Why not just simply TRY free parking and see what happens. What harm could it do? Then maybe I will come back and spend my money in Blackburn instead of going to the Capitol centre in Preston.

The facts are these:
From the accounts from Blackburn with Darwen Council 2010/2011 it states that income from Council Tax was just over £50m and income from non-domestic rates were over £71m.
The report suggests that income received from parking charges was "similar to the amount received from council tax."
The council budget for 2010/11 suggests that net income after expenditure for on and off street parking was expected to be less than £300,000. This does not include income from Fielden Street car park, but unless the 'unused' car park is reaping £50,000,000 a year in income, then either the report is wrong or we have people in charge who do not grasp the basics of finance.
Interesting to note that Waves was expected to lose £800,000 in the same year!
So the question is, "What is better for Blackburn?"

Blackburn road system is stupid now... it channels you to go elsewhere - you can't drive through it like you used to be able to do - and they got rid of all the free parking areas, so no wonder people just use out of town retail parks and supermarkets instead...

Roversboy wrote:
First they closed Church Street, then they made a mockery of King Street and the area around the college buildings.. I have lived in Blackburn all my life but I now find myself driving around in circles, to try to get anywhere near the parts of the Town Centre that I need to get to.. So I nearly allways just go to Preston or Manchester instead..

Same here. The council is to blame for not as many people shopping in Blackburn. They have made a mess of it with all the one-way systems and parking fees.

I am a Blackburn lad working in Leeds for work reason but i come down to Blackburn every week to see my friends and family.Blackburn problem is it's not road that in a mess ,the parking charges are a lot cheaper than Preston,Bolton,Manch
ester and Leeds.Blackburn has very little to offer in terms of number of retail and leisure compared to Preston,Bolton and Manchester.Blackburn is the retail capital of East Lancashire and it's in the same league as in Accrington and Burnley.There is not enough designer and book shops,the Mall didn't attract many designer stores like Jack&Jones,Monsoon,Z
ara,Internatinale,Be
averbrooks,Footlocke
rs,Gap,Waterstone the book store,Disney store and many more.There is 15% shops empty in Blackburn town centre,Blackburn Council need to hire a retail Guru to advise why a major retail centre of Lancashire like Blackburn cannot attract big name high street stores.There is not enough eating outlets in town either likes of Starbucks,Kfc,Pizza Hut,Krispie Kreme,Harry Ramsden,Nandos,Burge
r King,pubs ,restaurants,bars,cl
ubs like Preston.Blackburn is the only major town in UK without a four star hotel/conference hall.Free parking might help a little, but Blackburn problem is many people are still going to Preston,Trafford Centre and Bolton because lack of retail and leisure industries in Blackburn.As for retail parks ,Blackburn has not much on offer as well like Bolton and Preston,where is DFS,TOY R US,Home Bargain,Homebase,Ike
a,Wilkinson and many more ? these are based in Preston.Blackburn needs more investment in retail and leisure industries,the Blackburn Council must attract a four star hotel in town centre and the retail Park in Whitebirk needs to be expanded for more top name stores if Blackburn wants to compete with likes of Preston,Bolton and Manchester.

M.DANNY wrote:
I am a Blackburn lad working in Leeds for work reason but i come down to Blackburn every week to see my friends and family.Blackburn problem is it's not road that in a mess ,the parking charges are a lot cheaper than Preston,Bolton,Manch ester and Leeds.Blackburn has very little to offer in terms of number of retail and leisure compared to Preston,Bolton and Manchester.Blackburn is the retail capital of East Lancashire and it's in the same league as in Accrington and Burnley.There is not enough designer and book shops,the Mall didn't attract many designer stores like Jack&Jones,Monso
on,Z ara,Internatinale,Be averbrooks,Footlocke rs,Gap,Waterstone the book store,Disney store and many more.There is 15% shops empty in Blackburn town centre,Blackburn Council need to hire a retail Guru to advise why a major retail centre of Lancashire like Blackburn cannot attract big name high street stores.There is not enough eating outlets in town either likes of Starbucks,Kfc,Pizza Hut,Krispie Kreme,Harry Ramsden,Nandos,Burge r King,pubs ,restaurants,bars,cl ubs like Preston.Blackburn is the only major town in UK without a four star hotel/conference hall.Free parking might help a little, but Blackburn problem is many people are still going to Preston,Trafford Centre and Bolton because lack of retail and leisure industries in Blackburn.As for retail parks ,Blackburn has not much on offer as well like Bolton and Preston,where is DFS,TOY R US,Home Bargain,Homebase,Ike a,Wilkinson and many more ? these are based in Preston.Blackburn needs more investment in retail and leisure industries,the Blackburn Council must attract a four star hotel in town centre and the retail Park in Whitebirk needs to be expanded for more top name stores if Blackburn wants to compete with likes of Preston,Bolton and Manchester.

I never used to shop in Blackburn but since the new Mall opened I now come most weekends, I dont know what your problem is with parking in Blackburn, when I go to Blackburn shopping I park on the vue/railway carpark it is free and you only need to walk through the station along the boulevard and onto church street I like the new look market and entrance into the mall we have some really good stores. however if they had to put a parking fee on this then I would go back to shopping elsewhere
I have to agree though we do not have a decent hotel /conference centre in Blackburn, but we do have a lot of leisure facilities.

M.DANNY wrote:
I am a Blackburn lad working in Leeds for work reason but i come down to Blackburn every week to see my friends and family.Blackburn problem is it's not road that in a mess ,the parking charges are a lot cheaper than Preston,Bolton,Manch ester and Leeds.Blackburn has very little to offer in terms of number of retail and leisure compared to Preston,Bolton and Manchester.Blackburn is the retail capital of East Lancashire and it's in the same league as in Accrington and Burnley.There is not enough designer and book shops,the Mall didn't attract many designer stores like Jack&Jones,Monso
on,Z ara,Internatinale,Be averbrooks,Footlocke rs,Gap,Waterstone the book store,Disney store and many more.There is 15% shops empty in Blackburn town centre,Blackburn Council need to hire a retail Guru to advise why a major retail centre of Lancashire like Blackburn cannot attract big name high street stores.There is not enough eating outlets in town either likes of Starbucks,Kfc,Pizza Hut,Krispie Kreme,Harry Ramsden,Nandos,Burge r King,pubs ,restaurants,bars,cl ubs like Preston.Blackburn is the only major town in UK without a four star hotel/conference hall.Free parking might help a little, but Blackburn problem is many people are still going to Preston,Trafford Centre and Bolton because lack of retail and leisure industries in Blackburn.As for retail parks ,Blackburn has not much on offer as well like Bolton and Preston,where is DFS,TOY R US,Home Bargain,Homebase,Ike a,Wilkinson and many more ? these are based in Preston.Blackburn needs more investment in retail and leisure industries,the Blackburn Council must attract a four star hotel in town centre and the retail Park in Whitebirk needs to be expanded for more top name stores if Blackburn wants to compete with likes of Preston,Bolton and Manchester.

I never used to shop in Blackburn but since the new Mall opened I now come most weekends, I dont know what your problem is with parking in Blackburn, when I go to Blackburn shopping I park on the vue/railway carpark it is free and you only need to walk through the station along the boulevard and onto church street I like the new look market and entrance into the mall we have some really good stores. however if they had to put a parking fee on this then I would go back to shopping elsewhere
I have to agree though we do not have a decent hotel /conference centre in Blackburn, but we do have a lot of leisure facilities.