Parking Delight: Shepway Council Announce U-Turn on High Street Parking Charges

At a Shepway Council meeting last night, Council leader Robert Bliss announced that Shepway Council had bowed to public pressure and that pay and display parking would not be introduced in high streets in New Romney, Hythe and Sandgate, and Sandgate Road and Tontine Street in Folkestone.

Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Folkestone West Tim Prater commented:

"This is the right outcome for Shepway. On-street parking charges would have hurt local businesses and should never have even been proposed. Although I welcome the statement that Cllr Bliss has made, it doesn't seem that he has yet fully ruled out any on-street parking charges anywhere in Shepway: now is the time for him to do so.

"Shepway should now work to get more people using Council car parks by cutting charges there and introducing short term free parking. By doing so, they would get those car parks actively working for the areas they are in, rather than sitting empty helping no-one."