Calderdale Council parking: 'Don't hike up parking charges' plea from Calderdale traders facing daily fight to survive

Brighouse BID – which represents all businesses across the town centre including shops, cafes, offices and bars – has urged Calderdale Council not to go ahead with a proposed hike.

The council’s Cabinet will tomorrow (Monday) to consider a review of parking charges which suggests increasing how much people pay to park both on Calderdale’s streets and the council’s car parks.

Among the changes proposed for Brighouse are on street parking charges doubling to 40p for one hour, the cost of using Bethel Street Car Park increasing from 70p per hour to 90p per hour, and the cost of parking for the day in Bank Street and Mill Lane rising by 75 per cent and in Church Lane by 50 per cent.

BID asked businesses to have their say this week and say 92 per cent were opposed to the on-street parking charge changes and all to the off-street changes.

Co-chair Lesley Adams has written to Calderdale Council Leader Jane Scullion to ask the Cabinet to reject the proposals.

In her letter, she says: “While understanding the council faces financial challenges, we want to highlight the huge impact we think the increases to on-street and off-street parking charges would have on businesses who are already facing a daily fight to survive in the wake of increasing costs and decreasing consumer spending power.

“There are a number of good reasons for this beyond the clear and obvious impact it would have on the town centre itself, not least that our levy payers are facing challenges in the coming years as a result of the Town Deal.

“Clearly, there are discussions being had around the parking provision within that in the long-term but also in the medium-term there will undoubtedly be disruption to the town centre while the transformation takes place.

“In short, we do not believe these are the right changes at the right time and many also felt there was a clear disconnect between the Town Deal’s desire to encourage more people to park in off-street car parks in and around the town centre and this proposal to increase costs.

"For example, the large increases in the cost of parking for the day will have a particularly negative impact on those who work in Brighouse and those who own businesses here and whose staff need to travel into the town centre to work.

“I hope you and the Cabinet are able to consider our views as part of your discussions.”