RETAILERS are hopeful that the town’s upcoming parking charges will not affect business.

Cheshire West and Chester Council announced earlier this month that it hopes to introduce charges at some Northwich car parks by the end of November.

If approved, prices will range from 20p for two hours up to £3 for 10 hours at the Market, Victoria Club and Watermans car parks – although parking at Barons Quay, Zion Street, Park Street and the Old Depot Site will remain free.

Nicola Garside, from White Ribbon Boutique, believes there should be some free parking in town.

She said: “People do tend to shop with the intentions of running in and out, then they get sidetracked – bump into a friend, have a coffee, have some lunch. Before you know it they’ve been here four hours.

“So for me I would say have a couple of hours free for those people who are running in and out, and do a charge thereafter.

“You don’t want somebody to take a space all day long and not pay for it, and then some ladies or guys who are just running in to nip to the bank can’t get a space.

“I know that Barons Quay will still have a few hours of free parking, so whether it will make those spaces more crowded and difficult to get into it’s difficult to say, but I think people will still come into town – they will just push for the free spaces.”

Stuart Leeman, from Bella Boutique, thinks the charges will ‘probably not’ have an impact on business – although they will leave staff forced to pay for parking.

“Anyone who is spending time to come to town, they aren’t solely parking just to come here,” he said.

“But everyone else who works here does drive, no one lives in Northwich so they are travelling up to an hour and a half to get here.”

However, Phil Bower, from Northwich Art Shop, is less convinced that business will be unaffected by charges.

He said: “It’s really difficult because on the one hand I understand the pressures that councils are under, not just CWAC, but the whole issue that sits around the cost of council services.

“But will Northwich ever be ready for car parking charges? I’m not too sure, there is still a lot of work to be done in the town.

“I think it would have been fairer to the town to have delayed the decision until the Weaver Square redevelopment was either underway or completed. I think it would have been fairer to the town and to the businesses.

“I think it will make Christmas trading here very difficult, because as soon as people hear ‘parking charges’ and ‘Northwich’ they will say ‘I’m not going to go there’ and that will be a real shame.

“It’s tough in retail but as a town we are bucking the trend. The footfall we have seen this year is up on last year, and certainly up on the year before.

“As a business we are holding our own – we are around about 7.5 per cent up on last year. In the current retail market that is really strong, and I would hate to think that it could be damaged by an ego trip.”

But Tony Turner, from Rosebank Sports, welcomes the charges as a way of making sure shoppers are not caught out by ‘nasty parking tickets’.

He said: “Free parking doesn’t particularly work, so I’m actually in favour of sensible parking charges.

“For example Sainsbury’s offers two hours. It’s free, but it’s not, because if I go there for two hours 15 minutes they slap an £80 ticket on it.

“We’ve experienced quite a lot of people that are so conscious of having to move their car, they have walked out of the shop, so we’ve actually lost people who are not sure if they are going to get a parking ticket.

“But let’s keep it sensible. They are talking 30p on one of them, and I would quibble that is worth it. Land costs money, it has to be paid for, the council has to get money back for it, so it has to put the charges in.

“And it’s not fair for Cheshire to have parking charges in some towns that are different. It needs to be more transparent, and then I think most people would accept it.”