Chesterfield parking: Your views on car parking price hike as residents' parking permits set for review

New parking fees have been introduced across car parks run by Chesterfield Borough Council earlier this month.

The £0.90 thirty-minute tickets have been completely scrapped – meaning the shortest time to park for is now an hour. The price for a 60-minute stay went up from £1.70 to £1.90.

The council is also planning to review residents' parking permits which at the moment allow residents of the borough to park free of charge before 10am and after 3pm Monday to Saturday and all day on Sundays and bank holidays.

We have asked Chesterfield residents what they think of the recent changes.

David Raybould said: “I thought it was bad to start with and this is even worse. You have so many places out of town now where you can park for nothing and virtually get everything that you need, it’s just another nail in the coffin for the town traders.

"I moved just outside the area of getting the permit but many people rely on that permit and use it. It is ridiculous. I think money could be saved somewhere else.”

Trevor Cox commented: “This is going to put more and more people off coming into the town centre. When they can go to Ravenside people are just not going to pay those prices. What we really need is to attract more people to the town centre. And the way to do that is to make it affordable for car parking. And at the minute it is just not affordable.

"Everybody is watching what they spend so car parking prices are ridiculous. I paid £9.80 the other week just to park in a multistorey, which was crazy. They really need to get hold off these car parking prices and start to attract more people to the town centre and support local businesses. We have a lot of independent shops that are really struggling and they need support from the council. And one way they can help them is to make car parking affordable.”

Keith Dickinson said: “I think that’s a bit much because if only need something from the shop, you don’t want to be paying for an hour if you only will be there maximum of half an hour. I don’t agree with that.”

Morag Ososky added: “I think it is not fair for most people. Drivers tend to to be hit by most things these days. Not everyone comes to town for two hours or an hour even, a lot of elderly people are in and out. A lot of the time they use buses not cars, but not always. It’s just another way of making money out of motorists.”