Hereford BID CEO comments on Commercial Road Parking Proposal

Hereford BID Chief Executive, Mike Truelove, shares his comments on the proposed changes to parking on Commercial Road in Hereford City Centre.

Many businesses in Commercial Road are understandably panicked at the prospect of on-street parking fees - especially at a time when consumers are savagely cutting back on their weekly spend. One owner told me this could well be the final straw for him against rising running costs and that they depended on the ability for their customers to park and pop in. So, why change something that might make doing business harder, or will change help bring in footfall as the Local Transport Plans suggests? The Hereford Business Improvement District is worried.

Under the Council proposals, due to go out for public consultation soon, there are 8 streets earmarked for consideration of which Commercial Road has the largest concentration of traders. On-street parking fees are not new to Hereford and plans have been described as a continuation of the city centre policy. It seems that the 30 minute waiting time is by far the most popular by drivers, resulting in 138 visits on a particular day of monitoring.

The argument for on-street fees is that it displaces cars to car parks, thus avoiding the centre. This is turn reduces traffic and pollution, encourages active travel such as walking and cycling and attracts greater footfall because it is far more pleasant before measures were taken.

Businesses in Commercial Road have evolved around the parking available. Take that away and suddenly the drop-in to collect a takeaway or dry cleaning doesn’t happen so much, if at all. An argument has been made that more spaces will be available for other customers – but with most parking being for 30 minutes, the churn rate is arguably working well.

Demand for car parking across the county is on the decline. A few years UK occupancy was on average 80%. Now it is 60%. With more people working from home, is this really the best time to make life harder for businesses? We propose the first 30 minutes should be free, then charge after that.