Don’t get caught by SBC double-dip Saturday parking charges as Stone Town Council have already paid for free parking at the Christchurch Way and Crown Street car parks until 9th January 2021.
Back in September, we reported how following a motion by Stone Town Council, a resolution was passed that the council would use council funds to pay Stafford Borough Council £5000 to provide free car parking for everyone using the Christchurch Way and Crown Street car parks on each Saturday until the end of 2020. The initiative was in response to helping build back the town and encourage people back into the town centre.
Following the second lockdown, Stafford Borough Council has agreed that the money paid by Stone Town Council will cover them until the 9th January 2021, an additional 2 Saturdays.
Stafford Borough Council produced stickers like this and placed them on the machines, they, however, did not in any way stop the machines from taking payment, either in cash or via their phone parking app. This means that people who miss the stickers can still end up paying for their parking and we’ve heard lots of reports of people doing just that.
A council spokesperson told A Little Bit of Stone.:
“Any money in the car parking machines will support the [Borough Council’s] budget which includes upkeep of, and improvements to, car parks [across the Borough].”
The borough council declined to allow for the parking machines to be bagged, despite using this tactic themselves when the council decided to offer free parking during the initial Covid lockdown.
With regards to turning off the machines or handing the money back to Stone Town Council, Stafford Borough Council advised that this would add additional expense with someone having to be present early in the morning and late at night to turn them off on-site, also the council wouldn’t know how much money had been put into the machine on a Saturday unless they went back through all the tickets issued – something that Stafford Borough Council declare “not a good use of taxpayer resources”.
In an endeavour to stop Stafford Borough Council from double-dipping on the parking charges, volunteers from Stone Town Council – including the mayor, as well as volunteers from the traders in the town will be sitting out by the car parking machines on each Saturday to warn motorists that their parking has already been paid for. Stone Town Council have also produced large “Free Car Parking” signs on the major routes into Stone.
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1 comment
Nigel Shuttleworth
This, taking away the playing fields alongside the A34 at Walton, the imposition on Stone of 15% over our budgeted new builds and countless other instances where our interests are subjugated to those of our overbearing and bullying neighbour makes it imperative that the people of Stone separate ourselves from Stafford and have our own Borough Council to look after our affairs.