Traders in talks over city centre parking
INVERNESS city centre traders have met directors of the Business Improvement District (Bid) this week to discuss issues with the new traffic wardens service that came under fire recently for fining churchgoers.
Bid manager Mike Smith said he organised Wednesday night’s private meeting after being approached by some of the traders.
Mr Smith said: “We are getting varied feedback from our business members about the new parking enforcement officers.
“Some say ‘It’s great, they solve my parking problems,’ while others are more critical.”
Mr Smith added: “The businesses came along on Wednesday night and gave us their views. The directors will now be looking at these views and collating them.
“They will then go before a board meeting for discussion and review next Tuesday as to where we go from here.
“We had representations from some businesses about certain issues and invited them to come and talk about them with myself and other directors.”
Mr Smith previously said that he wants to see parking control as part of the marketing mix of the city centre.
“We want it to come over as a positive experience for people coming to the city by car,” he said.
“We need to be welcoming and give people best access to the city centre, and realise that for a lot of people coming by car is the preferred or only way to come to the city.”
The parking enforcement officers, now run by Highland Council seven days a week and not the police, were criticised for booking six worshippers outside the Methodist cChurch in Huntly Street.
And Inverness councillor Janet Campbell fears that city worshippers are starting to desert the city and drive to country churches because the parking fines are now issued seven days a week.
She has called for the enforcement officers to take Sunday mornings off to allow worshippers to park near their churches since the majority of services are held before 1pm. This happens already in most of Scotland’s major cities, she said.
She added: “I have heard that people are increasingly driving to the country churches because of the parking situation.
“This is of huge concern because we don’t want to lose our city churches that are part of our heritage.
“It is really heartbreaking that it may lead to closures if there is a big reduction in church-going.”
Shane Manning, Highland Council’s principle traffic officer, said he would not bow to the churches’ call for special dispensations, but has madetold Methodist cChurch stewards they would look at makinge more permit bays available to them.
Meanwhile, The Inverness Courier is continuing its campaign asking the council to consider trialling 15 minutes’ free parking in the city centre as a way of boosting footfall.
Deemed a success in Perth, where traders say it has allowed more people to drop into town when re they might previously have gone to out- of- town retail parks, it has also seen even small businesses innovating with click and collect options for shoppers.
The Courier’s own online Big Vote survey currently shows more than 801.4 per cent support for the proposal.
Add your voice at www.inverness-courier.co.uk or let us know what you think by emailing newsdesk@spp-group.com
