The people speak: Kettering parking charges must be cut or nobody will come

Last week, we revealed that charges for using council-run car parks in Kettering would be reviewed next year.
Wadcroft car park, Kettering. April 2014 NNL-140417-092730001Wadcroft car park, Kettering. April 2014 NNL-140417-092730001
Wadcroft car park, Kettering. April 2014 NNL-140417-092730001

The council’s regeneration portfolio holder Cllr Mark Dearing said it was “important to listen to what the people say”.

We asked our readers on social media what they thought of the current charges - and the majority have called on the council to slash, or even scrap, parking charges.

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Pauline Mayhew said: “For the price of two hours parking in Kettering I can drive to Northampton, have two hours free parking in the week or all day Saturday and Sunday and enjoy a much wider variety of shops.”

Stewart Bailey said: “The only shops I go to in Kettering are the ones that I can get to, and get back to the car in an hour so that I don’t pay too much for parking.

“If I know that I will be spending longer than an hour, then I go elsewhere.”

Kelly Brown said: “We have many cars parking outside our house daily because they work in town etc. and don’t want to pay.

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“It’s expensive so I can’t blame them but it means we have to park a few streets away from our own home because we can never get parked. It’s getting ridiculous now.”

Dan Parkinson said: “I think the town has made some good steps towards redeveloping itself, but clearly people aren’t getting the opportunity to see that hard work.

“Further development won’t happen if these smaller steps don’t take off, and we need to get footfall in to Kettering to show potential investors that it is worthwhile.

“I think reducing parking would help, maybe even making some parking free.”

Krista Norris said: “Parking in Kettering is expensive!

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Wellingborough is free and other bigger towns have cheaper parking. Sad that people don’t go but parking could be a big factor.”

Currently, parking for more than three hours in any of the council-run car parks costs £6.

The review will take place next year, potentially in March or April.