Havering Businesses’ response to the free Christmas parking.
Simon Ford of Havering Local Businesses writes today for the Havering Daily after fully reviewing Havering Council’s decision to give Free Parking to 25 Car Parks in the borough every weekend from the Saturday 30th November 2019.
Councillor Damian White said ‘I am pleased to announce that following an extra grant, a ‘Boris Bounce’, we are pleased to be able to say that council car parks will be free at weekends from November 30th to January 5th.
Havering local Businesses spoke to a resident of Harold Wood in which Cllr White is their local councillor, who owns a business in Hornchurch.
They said that following a 40% drop in business since the removal of the free 30 minutes parking, he is saddened that a councillor who is elected by residents can cripple the heart of a community by doing such a thing.
As Cllr Damian White is going to stand as an MP for Rainham in the upcoming December elections, I feel this parking fiasco might put people off of voting for him.
Havering Local Businesses reviewed Cllr White’s comments and felt that he should have included all of the Havering Parking Zones across the whole borough not just the 25 car parks in which I may add, many are not near the high streets of Havering.
This is going to be very confusing and I believe many residents across the borough will get penalised thinking the free parking applies across the whole borough.
After The Havering Daily exclusively revealed the Christmas free weekend tariffs, the public’s reactions were not positive. On social media many people felt Havering Council could have done more. With a continued drop in parking transaction since June 2019, many shops and businesses are now up for sale and after businesses have closed due to the parking charges, Havering Local Businesses says it could be ‘too little to late’.
Which 25 car parks are going to be free and how will this be displayed in the car park?
Will this include the night time economy as well – or just until 6:30PM?