Middlewich Town Council considering taking over car parks

Councillors unanimously backed a motion from Cllr Mike Hunter to look into the viability of the town council owning and adopting Civic Way Car Park, Southway Car Park and Seabank.

Cllr Hunter, who is also a borough councillor, voted against Cheshire East’s bid to bring in charges in the town at a highways meeting in September.

The motion was proposed at Tuesday night's meeting of the the town council by Cllr David Williams, in the absence of Cllr Hunter.

Cllr David Williams

Cllr Williams said: “I think what Mike wants to do is look at the possibility of taking ownership so we never have to fight that battle again and so, on that basis, I think that’s an excellent idea but the proposition is only looking for this to be investigated, it’s not a decision.”

Cllr Jonathan Parry seconded the motion saying although the proposal by Cheshire East to bring in charges had been defeated last year ‘it will be brought back in another form at some point’.

Cllr Jonathan Parry

“The only way we have to stop this in Middlewich … is getting ownership of them ourselves,” he said.

“I fully support this because I do not want to see car parking charges, I think that would be the nail in the coffin for our town centre.”

Cllr Carol Bulman said the Civic Way Car Park had just been re-surfaced by Cheshire East.

“Seabank isn’t great, but there is work to be done,” she said.

“We need just to be mindful of the fact there’s no such thing as a free car park, as Cllr Parry said there is the business rate to pay."

She added: “I still very much support us taking control of our car parks.”

Middlewich is one of the towns and villages in Cheshire East which doesn’t pay for parking. Others include Sandbach, Alsager, Holmes Chapel, Bollington, Poynton and Prestbury.

Crewe, Macclesfield, Wilmslow and Nantwich have the highest charges – with some Cheshire East car parks charging 80p for the first hour.

In Nantwich there are no free car parks in the town.