Dear Beagle Editor,
Has anyone heard yet whether the abolition of pay parking made any difference to the retail trade in the Bay and the use of the parking facilities by visitors and locals over the peak period?
There does not appear to have been any announcement yet from Council or the Chamber of Commerce, the two organisations you would expect to be conducting appropriate follow up analysis, to prove or otherwise the effectiveness of the changes ………………. and this sadly is not unlike so many changes which are simply assumed to have been the right thing.
As well as some real measurements from the retailers both on the old strips and inside the centre - and not the typical hype from CoC’s (I was once a retailer and know how it’s done!) – there needs to be statistics on numbers of customers, analysis of the use of the affected parking spots, relative numbers of infringement notices issued, etc., etc. as well as maybe just some anecdotal snippets for “spice”.
I wonder if we’ll see such a report any time soon.
Jeff de Jager Coila Creek
