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They call this listening?


inky pete

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I'm not expecting him to  :P

 

I just wonder about councillors who can't see the problem with making statements about how people shouldn't pay for things they don't use themselves. I also thought he was asking for trouble suggesting that car parks in places like Stockton Heath shouldn't be subsidised when in fact the council's own accounts show those are the only car parking facilities they administer that make a surplus.

 

It's very very clear that Councillor Dirir sees these places as cash cows regardless of what she is told by residents and local businesses about the consequences.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cheshire East Council...... 'Free after 3' parking and reduced rates too !!  .... Quote "The Council has introduced the changes in a bid to support businesses and encourage more people to visit their local town or village centre "

 

Trialled on one car park and now rolled out to another 6.

 

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/council_and_democracy/council_information/media_hub/press_releases/previous_press_releases/press_releases_july_2013/free_after_three_parking.aspx?lang=en

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Eh ? Which car parks are you talking about Coffee ??

 

the one by the bus station!

 

The electric bill must be huge and the replacement cost of florescent tubes must add up to a few quid too, yet they provide no lighting as natural light is ample. 

 

They need light sensors and maybe movement sensors too

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It's probably cheaper to leave them switched on. Frequent switching of fluorescent lamps can significantly reduce lamp life

 

Maybe it is, but currently we have about 14.5 hours of day light and even in winter we have 8.5. Find it hard to believe it is more economical to leave the lights on all the time

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Probably left on for elf and sefty reasons.

 

If somebody has a slip or fall and the lights are not on they could claim that the lack of lighting was the cause as they could not see what they had slipped or fallen on. the compensation lawyers would have a field day with something like that.

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Maybe it is, but currently we have about 14.5 hours of day light and even in winter we have 8.5. Find it hard to believe it is more economical to leave the lights on all the time

You may well be right, but unless there is a significant saving the council probably think it's not worth the extra cost of fitting light and movement sensors

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You may well be right, but unless there is a significant saving the council probably think it's not worth the extra cost of fitting light and movement sensors

 

 

Movement sensors was probably a stupid idea as you say once the lights are on it is probably cheaper to leave them, however a industrial light sensor costs £500 or so,

 

don't street lights have light sensors?

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which is what we will be if we keep pandering to the lycra louts! They don't even use the damned paths we have already, let alone spending more millions on new ones.... add the cost of this to the £750,000 to stick these nonsensical 20mph limits everywhere and I reckon the council have spent more on minority pandering than they have on resurfacing and fixing the bloody potholes around the town 

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Baz, according to the WG today the council have allegedly spent a total of £4,019,687 on highway repairs since 2009.

 

I presume that amount includes the additional costs of having to go back an re-repair all the repairs that break up within a few months of being done :wink:

 

Anyway back to parking (cyclists bore me) :lol:

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These are factual figures....

 

Parking Figures (Warrington) 

2010-11: off street car parking surplus of £20k and residents’ parking zones deficit of £174k

2011-12: off street car parking surplus of £50k and residents’ parking zones deficit of £129k

 

Apparently it cost the council £68k to run SH Forge Car Park  (including maintenance) for financial year 2011/2012.

broken down as follows:

· £18,011 – Non-domestic rates, electricity, surface water charges, car park maintenance

· £23,648 – Internal WBC staff costs for the proportion of their time spent administering this car park

· £27,086 – APCOA costs for enforcement and cash collections

 

 

Takings in Stockton Heath car park were approximately £100 a day which gave over £30k a year in ticket income to WBC.

 

A private company employs the CEOs. (parking wardens)

 

The private company is paid a fixed price by WBC to cover their staff, IT equipment etc.

 

The private company does not receive any income from penalty charges.

 

So .....2175 parking fines issued in Stockton Heath car park and all the money goes to the council so SH car park actually made the council a profit of £30k + £55k  (parking fines) = £85k in one year.

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These are factual figures....

 

Parking Figures (Warrington) 

2010-11: off street car parking surplus of £20k and residents’ parking zones deficit of £174k

2011-12: off street car parking surplus of £50k and residents’ parking zones deficit of £129k

 

Apparently it cost the council £68k to run SH Forge Car Park  (including maintenance) for financial year 2011/2012.

broken down as follows:

· £18,011 – Non-domestic rates, electricity, surface water charges, car park maintenance

· £23,648 – Internal WBC staff costs for the proportion of their time spent administering this car park

· £27,086 – APCOA costs for enforcement and cash collections

 

 

Takings in Stockton Heath car park were approximately £100 a day which gave over £30k a year in ticket income to WBC.

 

A private company employs the CEOs. (parking wardens)

 

The private company is paid a fixed price by WBC to cover their staff, IT equipment etc.

 

The private company does not receive any income from penalty charges.

 

So .....2175 parking fines issued in Stockton Heath car park and all the money goes to the council so SH car park actually made the council a profit of £30k + £55k  (parking fines) = £85k in one year.

Isn't that less £68k costs, so £17K profit?

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Silly me... thanks Vic you are probably right there. 

 

It would be interesting to know if the daily income from the machines has risen significantly since the reduction to 1 hour free parking (ie whether people are actually paying or running). 

 

If it's gone up the council will be able to see that people are still using and paying so maybe they think they will continue to do that if they charge from scratch......

 

..... or maybe it's gone down which is why they now need to charge everyone.   

 

Maybe you could find out what the daily takings currently stand at since the reduction to 1 hour free Vic :wink:

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Seems by those figures that the car park actually makes a loss on parking fees but a profit from fines off people too stupid, lazy or arrogant to pay the correct price for parking. Now if the users of this car park want to really hurt the Council financially they can simply pay the proper parking fee and not get fined. :)

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I wonder if our councillors will respond? Somehow I doubt it but when you read the majority of the public responses to the story; most are in favour of lower or no parking charges and for their councils to ditch these parking Nazis that stalk the motorist so they can slap a ticket on them...

 

The trouble we seem to have is that the only people who tend to stand for a position of a councillor have a fixation with green issues, public transport, national and party politics and cycling; probably because the vast majority of the working population in the town that have to fund all the nonsense and pay for these crazy schemes just don't have the time to get involved and are reduced to moaning about it on here....

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