just overstayed my four hours by a few minutes in Kennet Centre car park and was charged for an extra TWO HOURS resulting in charge of £6.50.

You parked there at 4am?

How did you manage that, isn't is closed at night after the last film finishes?

Hi Masons,
As has been discussed on here several times before.
If you fall foul of the parking small print in Newbury by just a fraction or if you don't read it at all because it IS so small then you WILL be penalised.
There is no grey area YOU are in the wrong and must pay the price.
Hard luck mate, I think many of us have been caught out much to our cost.

Very true. I got caught out in Reading a few weeks back. Annoying!

That is how parking is charged all over Britain.

I don't know of a single car park that is charged by the minute.

sorry to bump this topic, but I have found that Dover District Council offer linear charging (charging by the minute) in most of their car parks http://www.dover.gov.uk/parking/parking_in_dover.aspx

Yes, but did you note the sting in the tail. All the carparks have a time limit on how long you can park there. This may mean that you may have to cough up a fine if you overstay. That would have made Mason's cost to park much much more. I haven't researched Dover small print as the chances of me wanting to park there is slim unless I go on a Sunday when it is FREE FREE FREE.

I don't quite understand the parking philosophy in Dover. The Car Parking is Pay and Display. This means that, as far as I can see, the parker (is that a word?) has to elect how long he/she wishes to park at the beginning and the crunch comes if the parker overstays that elected time. So, it really isn't parking by the minute unless he/she knows exactly to the minute when he/she will return. There is a minimum charge so you can't buy 10 minutes to nip in for a pack of fags.

Sounds like the only advantage is getting parking time for every penny you put into the machine - unlike the machines they used to have in Newbury where they would keep the change if you didn't have the coins for the exact amount required.

What is wrong with just paying for what you use?

Nothing - apart from the loss of the profit made from all those minutes we pay for and don't use.

Have to say and I'm being very picky here. this is classic local government think! For years now parking meter technology has enabled time to be measured and charged by the minute.

Imagine the squeaks from 'Customer Protection Officers' if Sainsbury's or Tesco's scales only measured in blocks and they charged the higher rate when 'its a bit over',

All an attitude of mind!

Agree, simple thing to implement and of great benefit to the town centre. I recon that it's one for WBC to add to all future negotiations on parking.

Beware the sting in the tail. I buy 36 minutes because I know that I can do what I want and be back to my car with 2 minutes to spare. But, I forget my keys and leave them on the bank counter and have to go back. Jeez 38 minutes, out of breath and a fine from the green meanie for the 2 minute overstay.
That of course is pay and display but in the car park with the pay on exit then that would really be an honest way of collecting parking revenue. With the sophistication of modern electronics and software this would be so simple. I doubt that revenue would be affected that much as I'm sure that others, as I do, get a move on to get back at least a couple of minutes before the time runs out so that we don't drift over to pay for another hour. If it was only a few minutes then, what's the rush, only a few pence extra.

Jeez, we are talking a few quid here - about the cost of a Latte......

If one has spent, say, £20.00, that's like paying a 10% tax. Even worse if you have not managed to get the thing(s) you want. This is about a feeling of profiteering. Remember the discussion along this theme a while back: being late by a minute cost me a Latte (which I don't drink).

If parking is oversubscribed and in demand (like Oxford for instance) I could see a point, but the car park is rarely near full. People don't have to go to town these days, so I feel the town's administration would do well to realise that. In this case it seems on face value that the penny has dropped, but it wouldn't surprise me if we learn later that there's been some deal struck between Parkway and the council behind closed doors (at the tax payers expense).

White Horse DC have taken a different approach - 2 hours free - and they are consulting at the moment on what impact it has had. It would be interesting to see if there is benefit in a free period of parking.

Kidlington offers 3 hours free. Not sure how they monitor compliance/charge etc

South Oxfordshire council too. It certainly makes a big difference to where I decide to shop, and that's rarely Newbury.

You drive the 20 miles to Didcot to get a few hours free parking rather than pay £1 for all day Sunday in Newbury?

That's quite an assumption you've made there.

I live approximately 8 miles from Didcot (9 from Newbury). I don't mind going an extra mile or two, so sometimes I go to Wantage or Abingdon, or even Wallingford if the fancy takes me.

Newbury needs to remember that its catchment area extends well beyond the town itself, and those of us out in the sticks have a choice. Those who live in the Lambourn area, for instance, can head to Swindon, Marlborough, Hungerford or of course Wantage.

Marvellous shopping opportunities in Didcot!!

I wonder if WBC have calculated the potential loss from the Town Centre to places such as Didcot, Wantage, and the out of town retail parks? Would be interesting to understand the comparison between income from parking and potential lost income to trade.

With the exception of Downlander, I doubt that people are flocking in their thousands to Didcot for their retail needs.

No but they have been flocking to the shops and free parking at the Retail Park.

Might not be the best selection of shops but the free parking helps save some money compared to newbury town. Hate teh out of town shopping places but parking is free too.

I knew someone would sneer.

The reality is that most shopping is mundane stuff. Granted, you wouldn't go to Didcot to buy a new hat for a wedding or (insert luxury item here), but smaller towns like Didcot or Wantage can adequately meet everyday requirements.

So why do people flock to such places as The Oracle if their mundane needs can be met elsewhere?
I can imagine two ladies discussing their trip out shopping.................I know, lets go to Didcot!!
(Actually there is quite a good motorcycle shop there though!! )

I wouldn't go to somewhere like the Oracle for routine shopping, and I doubt anyone else does. Going to the Oracle is entertainment for people who enjoy going round shops looking at stuff and trying things on. I don't happen to be one of them. I am not a "recreational shopper". Shopping to me is usually a chore.

I've just looked at my current mundane shopping list and all of it can be met by a visit to Sainsburys or Tesco, Wilkinsons or Robert Dyas, Boots or Superdrug, all of which can be found in Didcot. Now if I want to buy something more occasional like a new winter coat, I'll obviously go elsewhere. You are right about the motorcycle shop though.

should not you be on a didcot forum rather than this one?

You are facing the same old blinkered bias . My other half and I go to Didcot more than anywhere else for a couple of hours on a Saturday. Sainsbury is always full of customers, and the other shops are quite diverse.

For one suggestion that Didcot has it's virtues for shoppers?

Blinkered is a very apposite word, given the racing connotations.

In fact I shopped in Abingdon today. Needed to stock up on dog food - the kind we favour is stocked by Pets at Home (Newbury & Abingdon) but is 50p a pack cheaper at Seeneys, the independent pet store in Abingdon. Got everything else I needed at Waitrose, Superdrug and that big shop that sells all sorts. Parking costs nil.

One of the stores that does attract us to Newbury is about to close, and that is Fabricland - a victim of rising rents. This is a grievous loss to Newbury, as it is the only place to buy fabric and material of all sorts*. Their website is frighteningly awful, but if you can get past the flashy neon horror of it you can't help but like them. First port of call for seasonal & DIY fancy dress type stuff.
*There's another fabric shop way up near the college, but not in the retail park. And that's it afaik.

Newbury should be falling over backwards to keep Fabricland.

Although having a good selection of useful goods at a reasonable price which you cannot buy elsewhere, I have always found the customer service in Fabricland appalling.

Which can applied to a lot of local retail outlets.

Exactly.
Which I suspect is a contributing factor as to why many fail.

I'm not a buyer of fabrics and buttons as a rule but I did need some wadding a week or so ago and called in at the fabric shop by the college opposite the car wash. Free parking and plenty of it and walking into the large shop, it was like the old style bazaar. Masses of stock, loads of every type of material and sewing stuff you could imagine and the bloke behind the counter was so helpful, it was a geat experience, almost as good as a visit to a tool shop.
I would recommend a visit to anyone with a fetish for fabric and the like.

I would imaging that this shop is the reason Fabricland in Bart street is closing.....

Traffic was queing back to London Road to get into PW car park today.

I would imagine being the first weekend of the month and being December has helped that. Lets hope the queues don't put people off.

Just goes to show what effect a little bit of parking can have.

According to their website the shop is closing due to a greedy landlord not parking.

That may be the case but accesibility has to be a factor. In my case, it would have doubled the cost of my purchase, I would have had to park in the KC, walked across to Fabricland, big time waster for me, and then back to my car and go to all the grief of getting out of the carpark.
Not sure that my purchase would have saved their bacon but mutiply that during the week and you have an answer perhaps.

Newbury was a traffic shambles today, the A339 moving south towards Sainsbury at a walking pace. Hambridge Road the same because of the traffic lights at the roundabout construction, that because a couple of OpenReach guys working in a hole in the footpath have coned off half the road. I didn't even bother with the retail park up by Tesco's.

Yes, they did. We were supposed to be meeting my sister, who called us to say she'd turned round and gone into Reading. We made it, a bit of a delay but not too bad. Called her back when we'd finished to be told she'd only just arrived. From the words between the expletives we gather she's learned her lesson!

If they had more customers they could pay their greedy landlord. I guess there's always plenty of reasons for shops closing, but the out of town and retail park shops seem to stay around for a lot longer than the town ones.

You mean like Borders, Comet & Sports Direct....

Yes, among others. Isn't sports direct doing a roaring trade? Borders was a national high street chain who happened to have one retail park unit here, and Comet which was around for ages has only just gone.

So what? They all went bust as have others - MFI, Mothercare, I'm sure you can think of others. It's no longer High St v Retail Park, online shopping and the 'sell everything' superstores (Tesco, Sainsburys) are taking sales away from everyone else.

Town centres will increasingly become places for boutique shopping and leisure (coffee shops, restaurants, etc) - not sure what will happen in retail parks - replaced by US-style malls perhaps.