Dizzy Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Anyone know if the usual free Saturday Park and Ride xmas bus services are on this year ? I can't find anything about them anywhere and haven't noticed any of the usual signs up round here (ie near Morrisons, Stockton Heath). They usually have them near Warrington Collegiate too is there a sign there saying when they start ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Not been informed of one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted December 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 How odd as it's usually on... but then again cost cutting and bus price hikes etc so nows probably a good time (in someone's eyes) to make money on the busses with parking in town being so bad at this time of the year. The queue for the Golden Square car park went way down Midland Way last Sunday.Just remembered it is free parking in all the council owned car parks tomorrow though (oops today ie Sat 6th as I've just realised what time it is) so no chance of getting a parking space. I think I'll leave it until Monday or after xmas to start my pressy shopping.... ARE MY FAMILY READING... better late than never ho ho ho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 Just wrap an empty shoe box or two and tell them it is a scale model of the invisible man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 or an action man deserter!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted December 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted December 7, 2014 Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 So that would be no park and ride this year. Still the council have got to make money from the carparks in the town centre somehow. But then again maybe they don't want the public to see how neglected bridge street has become. especially the newly revamped area which seems devoid of both customers and christmas decorations this year whenever i have been down there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted December 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 I wondered why the bottom bit of Bridge Street hasn't got any decorations up too especially with so many bars/pubs being down that end. Maybe it's because bright lights could distract all the drivers trying to negotiate the traffic at Bridge Foot but I'm sure there are usually some there. Shame as it would have looked nice going all the way down but then again I've not even thought about putting my xmas decs up yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Parish Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 Park and Ride ended in 2012. Cuts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted December 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 Blimey I was 100% sure I'd used it last year too.It's quite frightening that two years have gone by so quickly and I can even remember the exact conversation the youngsters at the back of the bus were having. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted December 11, 2014 Report Share Posted December 11, 2014 Never mind dizz I too have similar problems, comes from having a set routine. All days seem the same after a while. but does make keeping a diary or a blog that much easier. "todays entry, see yesterday." Still when they have got all the fines in for the bus lane infringements and recouped the cost of the cameras and made up the deficit for the parking, then maybe they will re-instate the park and ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted December 11, 2014 Report Share Posted December 11, 2014 Park and Ride ended in 2012. Cuts. If your administration ended park and ride because of cuts Steve; why do you continue to fund the general parking scheme when it loses over £250,000 a year? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted December 11, 2014 Report Share Posted December 11, 2014 Because a large part of the shortfall is made up of the cost of providing free parking to council staff and taking that cost from the budget for providing public parking services across the borough. If the council did what most large organisations do and levied a charge on the individual departments employing staff who use the parking facilities (ie. charge each departments budget for the parking permits issued to their staff) then most of the deficit in the parking budget would disappear overnight. If the council then stopped deliberately running residents parking schemes and council owned car parks in predominently Labour voting areas of the town at a financial loss, then the parking budget would be in surplus by more than enough to run the park and ride schemes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Parish Posted December 11, 2014 Report Share Posted December 11, 2014 If your administration ended park and ride because of cuts Steve; why do you continue to fund the general parking scheme when it loses over £250,000 a year? Car parking deficit down to £108,000 this year. Break-even the aim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Car parking deficit down to £108,000 this year. Break-even the aim. but still losing £108,000.... I suppose as a politician you would see that as some measure of success? whereas the public would see it as a loss, a failure. a crap result..... oh to see things as a politician..... life would be so rosy! why not just charge the council staff that get the free or subsidised parking the full price? If I have to go into town and park while I go and do a job I have to pay.... why don't they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted December 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Car parking deficit down to £108,000 this year. Break-even the aim. Good to see the council are making progress on the car parking deficit Steve I have to ask though... front page news report re: the proposals to install CCTV to fine people for using bus lanes in Warrington says "Warrington has been considering using CCTV to enforce bus lanes since 2012 to help reduce a deficit of £242,000 on parking services" Is that allowed ? Perhaps we should start a new topic re the CCTV as we are now going off on a tangent..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Good to see the council are making progress on the car parking deficit Steve I have to ask though... front page news report re: the proposals to install CCTV to fine people for using bus lanes in Warrington says "Warrington has been considering using CCTV to enforce bus lanes since 2012 to help reduce a deficit of £242,000 on parking services" Perhaps we should start a new topic re the CCTV as we are now going off on a tangent..... Not at all.... the Labour, car haters are just looking for yet another way of stinging the motorist (who already contribute hundreds of millions in tax that already fund services in Warrington) Bus lanes are a complete and utter joke and always have been in this town. We had the shortest bus lane in the world at the end of the Sankey Way, the bus lane that buses didn't use outside St Gregs and the bus lanes down the Causeway and Knutsford Road that a few half empty buses an hour use in priority over hundreds of cars that would fill a hundred buses (so even if everyone got out of their cars and tried to get on a bus there wouldn't be enough available spaces anyway) Typical socialist nonsense to try and drag everyone down a peg or two by using excessive force and the authority of the state (or in this case the council) It is about time they started to realise that people are not going to get out of their cars when the buses are charging the extortionate fares they currently do and having a lane purely for buses only adds to the congestion, and doesn't help it at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfie Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 If the council then stopped deliberately running residents parking schemes and council owned car parks in predominently Labour voting areas of the town .... the Labour, car haters I wish you right wingers would get your act together. Oh, and just out of interest do Labour councillors not drive cars? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grey_man Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 The problem with the parking deficit argument, as inky pete says, is that some parts will always run at a loss, especially employee parking. What the council is doing in attempting to create a surplus is conflating all of its car parks then aggressively targeting car parks that already make a surplus in areas they couldn't care less about. Just check out the council's website to see where parking by shops is free and where it isn't and check out where they enforce by the constant presence of parking wardens and where they don't to generate as much income as possible from fines. And in today's news - Council's using traffic fines to generate revenue. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30445097 In the case of Warrington Borough Council, Stockton Heath is now a major source of income which is why the council is deliberately targeting the Medical Centre (where people may be longer than expected) as a way of generating revenue. The obvious solution is to look at the various parts of the parking function - on-street, employee and shops - and set different targets for each rather than using one part to overcompensate for the others based on a political standpoint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inky pete Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Can anyone (Steve?) justify the costs of WBC staff parking being taken from the budget for public parking services and provision, rather than from individual departmental or overall WBC running costs budgets? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Oh, and just out of interest do Labour councillors not drive cars? maybe they do, maybe they don't... the Mayor doesn't have to and as I remember the last time I saw the Mayors car parked up at Warrington Hospital for example, it was parked right outside the main entrance doors on the pedestrianised flagged bit. I even posted a photo of it on here. I was at the hospital paying car parking charges to visit my ill mother, the mayors car was avoiding paying parking charges whilst no doubt on some tax payer funded jolly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P J Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 What kind of jolly can you have at the hospital? Not my idea of fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Just a thought: if the Council gave it's staff bus passes, instead of free car parking, perhaps it would contribute to relieving traffic congestion in the Town?! While we're at it, perhaps they could have a condition of employment, that all staff live within the Borough; again reducing car usage?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted December 13, 2014 Report Share Posted December 13, 2014 not only that but they could then claim that bus passenger numbers were up and justify all the bus lanes. after all we can't have the council people turning up late for work because the bus was late can we. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted December 13, 2014 Report Share Posted December 13, 2014 As one bus can take fifty cars off the road, it would seem a no brainer for anyone concerned about road congestion ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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