Free town centre parking success

Councillor Greg Couzens next to one of the signs indicating free parking after 3pm.

The ‘Free After Three Parking’ scheme has been a success; Finance Portfolio holder Councillor Greg Couzens explained to last night’s full council meeting that there had been a significant increase if footfall in the Town Centre. He said: “The figures clearly indicate a substantial increase in shoppers visiting Rochdale Town Centre.”

A comparison of footfall between the dates of 25 May (before Free after Three) and 22 June showed an increase from 2200 shoppers after three to 7,100.

Marks & Spencer store manager Mike Tobin emailed Councillor Couzens the stores “customer metrics after 3pm since Free after Three started” and said “it's good news”:

“Footfall is up 3.5% on the year (that’s about 550 additional customers during a three week period after 3pm).

“Average basket is up 3.6% on the year.

“We have also seen a small increase in units per transaction.”

Councillor Couzens also revealed that the scheme may soon be extended to free parking on Saturday’s, he said: “I am pleased to announce that we are looking at the possibility of free parking all day on Saturdays.”

Challenged as to why the scheme could not be free parking all day every day he said the cost of £1million would be too much, he also cited the damage that would be done to the private sector car park owners, particularly the town’s two shopping centres, Rochdale Exchange and The Wheatsheaf Centre, who told the council they rely on the income from their car parks and could not afford the loss of revenue any reduction would bring.