BUSINESS and community leaders who are working to revitalise Altrincham have voiced their concerns about a hike in car parking charges.

Members of the Altrincham Neighbourhood Plan Working Group spoke out after parking charges trebled.

The price of parking has gone up in many local authority car parks and on-street charging areas, borough-wide, from 20p to 70p for 30 minutes and from 50p to £1.50 for two hours.

The Neighbourhood Plan members are worried that this will hit trade in the town.

The working group members said of the higher charges that they are "genuinely concerned that they will have an adverse impact on the town’s economy – particularly the increase for the first hour."

They said car parking should not be used by council chiefs as a 'cash cow'.

Messenger Newspapers: Members of the Altrincham Neighbourhood Plan Working Group l to r Robert Redford, Tony Collier, Mike Shields and Leslie Cupitt. Photo: Melissa Hague

Members of the Altrincham Neighbourhood Plan Working Group l to r Robert Redford, Tony Collier, Mike Shields and Leslie Cupitt. Photo: Melissa Hague

And they also spoke out over the the effect on car parking spaces that will result from the multi-million pound Altair development.

Last June, the group submitted a Neighbourhood Plan for Altrincham - a vision of how the town can develop and thrive over the next 15 years. This plan included a proposal for an 'integrated car parking strategy', which sought to treat parking as a community asset and an integral part of the town centre offer.

This would include access improvements, better signage, co-ordinated charging and payment facilities, and overnight parking provision for town centre residents.

The group said: "Sadly, no progress at all has been made on this vital set of issues and instead we are faced with a unilateral decision on charges for the council’s car parks, clearly aimed solely at generating income for the council without careful consideration of the wider implications.

" There was some public consultation on the proposals but in the end the proposals were unchanged.

Messenger Newspapers: Increased parking charges have been introduced

Increased parking charges have been introduced. Photo Melissa Hague

"At the same time, we have proposals for the Altair site which will result in the provision of 200 spaces for the occupiers of that site coupled with the loss of 250 public spaces close to the interchange and the town centre.

"This continues the trend in Altrincham to allow the development of new activities which each generate and make some provision for their own new demand for parking spaces while removing spaces which were available for the general public – namely the two supermarkets and the cinema and associated developments.

"In total many hundreds of spaces have been lost and the town has increasingly felt the damaging impact that this has brought.

"There seems to be no recognition by the council that this approach is having a serious negative impact at the same time as the use of The internet is fundamentally changing the role of the town centre."

It called on town hall bosses to develop the integrated car parking strategy.

Messenger Newspapers: Members of the Altrincham Neighbourhood Plan Working Group l to r Robert Redford, Tony Collier, Mike Shields and Leslie Cupitt. Photo: Melissa Hague

Members of the Altrincham Neighbourhood Plan Working Group l to r Robert Redford, Tony Collier, Mike Shields and Leslie Cupitt. Photo: Melissa Hague

In a statement, Trafford Council said it remains committed to supporting and investing in its town centres to ensure they remain vibrant and prosperous.

It reaffirmed that the increases in car parking charges across the borough were part of this year’s budget proposals, and were necessary to ensure the council met the budget pressures it faces. The new prices are now frozen for three years.

It pointed out that as part of the overall council budget review, a six week public consultation involving residents and businesses was carried out between November and December last year.

Before any final decisions were made, the council said it took into account the views and comments received as part of this public consultation.

A council spokesman added: “The ongoing regeneration of Altrincham is encouraging further investment in the town and there are a number of regeneration projects planned or underway.

“Whilst there will be some loss of parking during development of these schemes once they are complete there will be an overall increase in the parking in the town.”

* The Altrincham Neighbourhood Plan Working Group members who supported the statement are: chairman Mike Shields, Damian Utton, Tony Collier, Amy Sharpe, Leslie Cupitt, Neil Myerson, Richard Simon, Robert Redford and Graham Fawcett