Following my post last week, I have this morning met with representatives from Cornwall Council’s Parking services. I put across the concerns that have been raised and the Parking Services department have advised that the reasoning behind it is to simplify the charges across Cornwall. So, following this meeting I can report the following : –
Firstly on some proposed changes to the charging hours. After some correspondence from across Cornwall, the new charges will finish at 4pm for all seven days. Whilst this is good news, I am still concerned regarding the Sunday charges and will be making further representations to the Cabinet Member and Officers who have been given delegated powers to implement these new charges. So whilst it is undoubtedly good news on the finishing time, I am still going to argue the case against the Sunday charge.
In early March there will be a consultation event with Chambers of Commerce and Business Improvement District (BID) representatives and whilst we do not have one in Callington, I have managed to secure a place for a representative from Callington and I will be liaising with some contacts around the town to get someone to take part.
Regarding the one hour charge, up until late 2018 the one hour payment was paid by the Co-Operative which operated at New Road until then. Cornwall Council officers were in discussion with the retailer that took over regarding transferring this agreement to them when they joined. However, for some reason this never happened and since then the Council have effectively being paying that themselves.
I am now working with them on contacting the Retailer to try and get this agreement back to avoid the one hour charge. Callington is the only Town Car Park where there is effectively free parking so we need to get some agreement with the retailer to avoid the charges coming into operation. I will keep you all updated on the progress.
The Consultation on these charges starts on 2nd March and runs until 23rd March. Whilst there has been a lot of discussion on this, it is vitally important that we all take part in this consultation and put our real concerns across. I appreciate over 1,000 have signed a petition and I will be requesting this is forwarded to the Cabinet member for consideration, please could everyone take part in the consultation so we get a really strong response from Callington and the surrounding parishes. The link will be made public soon both on the Council website and it will also be sent to Callington Town Council and myself and as soon as we have it we will circulate it.
Finally I raised the issue of the Primary School student collection issue and the Council have
promised to work with the Primary School to try and find a solution.
Andrew Long
