Parking charges puts off visitors

From: Jane Buller, Friars Way, Hastings
By The Newsroom
Published 30th Mar 2017, 14:19 BST
Updated 9th May 2017, 18:28 BST

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Hastings Observer lettersHastings Observer letters
Hastings Observer letters

Yet again, I am in utter disbelief at the short-sighted nature of Hastings Borough Council and their over-inflated car parking charges.

The revised charges from April will rise to £1.70 an hour which, when you consider that you can park on the front at Eastbourne for £1.20 for TWO hours in the summer, Hastings charges seems ridiculously high.

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I have witnessed a couple of occasions now where visitors have got out of their cars, gone to the payment machines and then come straight back and driven out of the car park moaning that they will go further along the coast where they do not have to pay so much to park.

In these days where Hastings (like so many other coastal towns) competes to attract visitors to benefit the local economy it seems very short-sighted to drive them away through inflated parking charges. That leaves us, the poor locals who have no option but to pay (and even I will think twice about driving into town unless I have to).

Worse still (and in very small writing on the notices put up above the payment machines) I would like to warn local people that the old payment of £1 for parking after 6pm will now cease and parking will instead be free after 9pm! What use is that to people coming into town for the evening?

I suspect this will just serve to catch people out so that the parking wardens can issue more parking tickets and raise further revenue or am I just being cynical?

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