Free car parking in Newport city centre council that was established two years ago will be discontinued soon. This plan was introduced in December 2010 by the Tory-Lib Dem administration. This scheme allows shoppers to park cars free of charge for two hours in the multi-storey car parks.
It is announced that shoppers can park their cars free of charge for 5 hours from December 3rd 2012 upto January end but thereafter from February 1st they need to pay £1 for 3 hour period. Charges will be applied to both pay and display and multi-storey car parks.
Council says that the reason for the decision is that this free scheme cost them £850,000 a year and hence is not financially sustainable. Labour councillors and Tory David Fouweather (Conservative Cllr) have criticised telling that this decision does not encourage more shoppers into the area and at the same time will hit traders badly. Cllr MatthewEvans said that this was a poor show and that two-hour free car parking so far showed appreciable figures but now it has brought mixed responses from both customers and traders.
