I have read that Parkway parking scam charges have been reduced, apparently. Good news if true, or if not just a seasonal thing!

Here:
http://www.shopatparkway.com/events-and-of...park-at-parkway

That's good, and I hope they profit from the initiative. It would hopefully create a more balanced parking distribution in town.

Now why would they want to do that I wonder?
Footfall not meeting expectations possibly?
The cost of parking certainly deters me from shopping in the town so how many more?

Great news for visitors and residents of the district, anyone know what the council have paid Parkway from revenue at other car parks since it opened?

Come on Richard you expect an answer from the council? Dream on!

I think they have had to drop their prices as the car park has never been fully utilised!
One of the rare occasions I went into town, to get a prescription dispensed, and walked passed the car park there were very few cars parked and the road leading to it was bereft of traffic.

How can you walk past an underground car park?

You obviously have not walked past the Parkway car park then? You are slipping you know the supreme leader expects more than this. you should be utilising the car park to keep the numbers up.

I have walked past it. You can't tell how empty or full it is.

I have my own private parking space in town, so don't need to use any public car park.

you cant. he is making it up. dont feed the troll.

LOL, I wouldn't call costco a troll, their posts are not that good.

Funny, but Sainsbury's car park always seems to be well used........and.............there always seems to be plenty of people using the crossing into the town.
Hmmmmmmmm.............!!

I doubt that footfall is the issue - 'wheelfall' is surely the issue. They are not making enough from the car park because most people use cheaper council parking - perhaps a lot more will use it now.

Plenty of footfall when I went into town yesterday.

That would have been a Saturday, then... Hardly surprising.

Yep, Saturday, mainly youths with a couple of quid in their pocket buying very little and making a noisy nusance of themselves and single mums pushing a pushchair to the pound shop!

Either way, on the face of it, a price drop could be seen as a good thing these days. Since Parkway has opened, I find myself less inclined to just pop into town these days. This is due to two main reasons: my preferred car park, Kennet Shopping, has become a lot busier; and Parkway is a bit pricey and out-of-the-way.

Isn't that coincidental, since the Kennet Centre multistorey and Parkway are opposite ends of the town? I read your post as implying that your preferred car park has become busier because Parkway has opened. Northcroft is much closer for people wanting to shop in Parkway.

This coincidence seemed to happen immediately Parkway was started, but you can deduce what you like, I'm only stating what I have found. Whether it is due to Parkway or not, the council car parks are often close to full on Saturdays, where as Parkway has plenty of spaces by comparison.


It is also further to drive and more awkward to access for people from the south of the Newbury area.

I quite agree. If you live on the south side it is a PITB having to go all the way round the Robin Hood when there is a very much under used bridge over the river/canal.

Parkway road itself is free of traffic for most of the day even on a Saturday apparently, according to the mother in law.

I'm not suprised the only reason for cars to go down there is to go to Park Way or Camps or to depart from those aforementioned car parks.

To be somewhat pedantic you don't have to go round the Robin Hood at all. You turn left at the first set of lights to go towards the town centre.

Practically the only car park not down a dead end in the town centre is the KC.

Pardon? I must be thick, but I don't understand where you are.

from the S you drive up the A339 to the first lights on the Robin Hood & then turn L into London Rd. You don't need to 'go round' the RH....

But the only alternative for going back home avoiding the Robin Hood giratory, is to drive out to Marsh Benham and back. Notwithstanding going via Shaw and Clay Hill.

Depends what time you leave I guess.....

Ah, I only half thought that through, didn't I?

I used Parkway today and it was definitely busier than it used to be mid-week (before the reduction in charges).

Perhaps eventually the council will get the message that lowering, rather than increasing, parking charges in other car parks is a good way to attract business.

Most of the buses going through PW this morning were over 50% full. Amazing what dropping the park charges will do isnt it?

is this more or less than normal?

The popularity of the PW car parks is obvious by the availability signs plonked round the town.

Bearing in mind that the Parkway people have to contribute parking income to WBC and there was some deal cobbled up that WBC would refund some of their parking revenue to the Parkway people, we have to make sure that the parking charging is correctly placed to allow these two bodies to shuffle money between each other. I'm sure the BID people are lobbying both parties to strike a fine balance with parking charges between robbing the populace, not paying each other's dues and making sure that the traders get their sixpennoth of footfall to make their contribution to the BID worthwhile. It's a headache for some poor soul to resolve. I would expect a team of people much cleverer than the likes of us to be burning the midnight oil to get it right, or perhaps not.

Here's a nice graph. You have to note that the WBC parking increased when Parkway opened. The upsurge was probably because of the Parkway charges and shoppers parked in town and walked to the new development. I wonder if this is still the case. But, the dramatic fall after the development started as a result of the closure of half of the town's parking (In Park Way and sold for a pound) will take some time to recover.

The number of Parkway spaces on the boards around town tell there own story.....