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13
Feb
Tesco parking charges affect Ripon's evening economy, it is claimed
New parking rules introduced at Tesco’s new supermarket in Ripon are harmful to the city’s evening economy, it has been claimed.
When the site on Marshall Way was owned by Booth’s, the car park was run by North Yorkshire Council – and before that, by Harrogate Borough Council – and parking was free of charge between 6pm and 8am.
That meant that people wanting to go out in Ripon in the evening could park there without worrying about incurring charges.
But when Booths vacated the site last year, its contract with the council ended and the car park was handed over to Tesco, which has outsourced management of the facility to Horizon Parking, a national company based in Chelmsford.
New rules
Under the new regime, customers may park free for up to 30 minutes from Monday to Sunday, including outside store operating hours. Customers spending £5 or more in the store may park for up to two hours free of charge.
Anyone only wanting to park without shopping at Tesco must pay £1 for one hour or £1.50 for two hours. The maximum stay for any driver is two hours.
Charles Monck is a trustee of the St Cecilia Orchestra, which holds concerts in the city.
The car park entrance.
He told us:
If you come to a concert, you might arrive around seven o’clock, but the concert won’t be finished before nine. At our last concert, I had to announce to the audience that anyone parked at Tesco should move their car during the interval. It’s not ideal.
It’s an important public facility that affects the nighttime economy of Ripon. It’s not just us – a lot of people use the car park in the evenings to go off and do something in the city.
It’s one of those things that has crept in without people really noticing.
It’s my understanding that staff at Tesco aren’t very happy about it either – it puts people off coming.
Footfall data supplied
Lilla Bathurst, manager of Ripon Business Improvement District (BID), said she had raised the matter with Tesco following complaints from BID members.
She said:
It has been a concern for our businesses. As such I have spoken to the manager at Tesco and highlighted the concerns of businesses. I have supplied him with detailed footfall data showing the times when the car park is busy and when it is not.
The manager tells me that he understands that Horizon/Tesco HQ have viewed the car park as they would any other city centre car park.
Whilst we are a city in Ripon – and very proud of it – we have the population of a small market town, so hopefully, Horizon/Tesco HQ will understand this, and revise things.
Lilla Bathurst, manager of Ripon BID.
'Listening to feedback'
To support the evening economy, Ms Bathurst has suggested introducing free parking from 8pm till 8am, by either keeping the two-hour limit, but adopting 6pm as the last charging time, or by raising the limit to three hours, but adopting 5pm as the last charging time.
The Stray Ferret contacted Tesco and asked whether the company might consider changing the parking regime to allow people to park in the car park free of charge outside shopping hours.
A spokesperson for Tesco said:
We are always listening to the feedback from our customers, and we continue to review car park usage data to ensure we have the best car park management processes in place.
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