Cotswold District Council will be allowing motorists to park for free in its car parks on Mondays and Tuesday afternoons during January and February 2015 (1pm to 6 pm.)
This is on a trial basis and follows a Council decision earlier this year to set aside a fund of £25, drugs 000 for incentives to attract more motorists to the Cotswolds during traditionally quiet trading periods.
Commenting on the free parking trial, buy Cllr Chris Hancock, the Cabinet Member for Enterprise and Partnerships, said:
“I am sure that this will be welcome news for many residents and also visitors to the district. We want to support local businesses after the Christmas/New Year period – a time when trading can be rather quiet – and we believe that this trial will encourage more use of our car parks in the winter months and, hopefully, entice more people into our local shops.”
Cllr Lynden Stowe, the Leader of the Council, added:
“We are committed to ensuring that motorists using our car parks get a good deal. We have frozen parking charges since 2010 and our tariffs compare favourably with places like Cheltenham and Gloucester. We also recently introduced a half hour tariff in all our car parks where it was previously only available in a few. This free parking incentive on Monday and Tuesday afternoons in January and February is yet another example of how we are trying to balance the need for parking income to pay for services with requests from motorists and traders to provide parking concessions on occasions.”