Change to car park charges rejected

Monday, 12 October 2015 12:38

Douglas councillors have turned down an idea to encourage use at a Douglas carpark by dropping its charges.

It followed an in-house report which showed Drumgold Street has a considerably greater take-up than the Chester Street site.

Douglas Corporation runs Chester Street, Drumgold Street, Shaw's Brow and the Bottleneck car parks.

Since the Corporation started running all four sites in the summer, charges have been the same across all four.

But while three of those are almost full at peak times, Chester Street lags far behind.

Drumgold Street at peak times is up to 96 per cent capacity, while Chester Street is just over 60 per cent.

Both those are used, in the main, by shoppers.

It was suggested that, by making Drumgold Street more expensive than Chester Street, it would encourage shoppers to use it more.

But after looking at the report, the majority of the Environmental Services Committee turned down any changes.

That decision will be considered by the full council on Wednesday.

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