WILTSHIRE Council has made a U-turn on its proposal to offer free parking in the car park for the town’s new community campus, and Melksham Town councillors say they are not happy that campus users will have to pay for parking.
Town councillors are demanding that Wiltshire Council reconsider its proposal, and instead offer free parking to all customers of the campus, which is set to open in the autumn in the grounds of Melksham House.
“If I’m paying to swim, I think use of the car park should be included,” said cllr Simon Crundell at a meeting of the town council’s economic development and planning committee.
“And the library will be there – which is an invaluable service – surely access to our library should be made as easy as possible.”
It had originally been proposed by Wiltshire Council that three hours’ free parking be offered in the campus car parks. But this raised concerns from town councillors that the car park would be ‘used and abused’ by people not using the campus.
‘Insufficient spaces for free parking’
In response to the feedback, Wiltshire Council says it plans to bring the campus car park in line with the other long stay car parks in Melksham, which are all chargeable.
In correspondence to the town council inviting them to give feedback on the revised proposed restrictions, the Wiltshire Council community campus and hub support officer said, “Due to the proximity of the campus car park to the town centre, not charging for parking is more likely to lead to insufficient spaces for users of the facility.
“It has been considered that non-campus users are more likely to park in the free spaces when they would normally use the other pay and display car parks
“Users of both the library and Melksham Blue Pool currently pay for parking in the public car parks and therefore this proposal does not present a change.”
However, at last week’s meeting, cllr Colin Goodhind said, “What worries me about this, is that it is being referred to as ‘just another car park’.
“Again, there is nothing that links the car park to use of the campus – so people will use this car park as it is closer to the centre of town – and that just seems crazy to me!”
“I take umbrage with Wiltshire Council treating this like any council car park,” added cllr Crundell. “I’m not a customer of the car park, I’m a customer of the leisure centre, and I don’t think it is compatible to treat it as just another Wiltshire Council public car park – and it’s not practiced across the county to charge in leisure centre car parks.”
Free parking in Corsham
In support, cllr Saffi Rabey added that Wiltshire Council has set a precedent by having a free car park for its Springfield Leisure Centre in Corsham.
‘Car park should be free for campus users’
At the meeting it was decided by councillors that the town council’s response to Wiltshire Council’s pre-consultation about the campus car park regulations should be to again recommend that there be a system to link campus use with use of the car park, to ensure that campus users have priority; and that parking be free for campus users.
A formal consultation process on the campus car park regulations will take place in the coming weeks.
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