Chris Beane
A major increase in car parking charges will make it harder for businesses to attract talent to Shrewsbury in the future, a town centre trader said today.
Chris Beane, Branch Manager of Howden Insurance in High Street, said Shropshire Council’s proposals to more than double charges in some town centre car parks had come as a huge blow.
“These massive increases have come totally out of the blue and could end up causing real problems for businesses,” he said.
“My biggest concern is the impact this will have on my team members – both in terms of our existing people and our ability to attract new talent.
“Howden Insurance is committed to having high street premises, with more than 100 branches in the heart of town centres across the UK, and I know Shrewsbury is considered to be among the more expensive places to park compared to our other branches.
“The cost of parking is already a major consideration for our teams. Shrewsbury town centre is a great place to work, but these increases could make it harder to attract people, so they might never find out what Shrewsbury has to offer.”
Shropshire Council claims the increases are aimed at encouraging people to find other ways of getting into the town centre, but Chris said the alternative options were not currently viable.
He added: “A lot of people are prepared to use public transport or cycle whenever they can, but the local bus services are simply not regular or reliable enough.
“Until better alternatives are in place, hiking car parking charges will just result in turning people away from the town centre, whether that’s workers or customers.
“I am passionate about highlighting Shrewsbury as a great place to work – we have lots of fantastic young people with bags of potential who go off to university and don’t come back because they feel there are not enough opportunities here.
“It’s so frustrating because short-sighted decisions like this do nothing to encourage people to work in the town centre – in fact, they do the opposite.”
