Parking fee to rise 20p?
Tuesday 10th February 2009, 3:00PM GMT.
PARKING prices could go up by 20p per hour or more to pay for the new car park at Ann Court.
It is estimated in a report not yet seen by the public that demolishing Ann Court and building a new car park will cost £23 million, but there is only £9 million to pay for it in the Car Park Trading Fund.
The Town Park Implementation Plan, compiled by Transport and Technical Services, proposes setting up an internal or external loan for the £14 million deficit and the loan and interest charges would be repaid by raising scratch card prices by 20p.
The report plans to make the Gas Place site into a Town Park and knock down Minden Place car park and turn it into a public square, but only after the Ann Court multi-storey car park has been built.
It currently costs 56p an hour to park in St Helier and Senator Alan Breckon, the Health, Social Security and Housing Scrutiny chairman, said that an increase of 26.3 per cent was a massive hike, especially for people paying monthly season tickets at a cost of £94.76.
The demolition of Ann Court would be funded by an increase in parking charges. Picture by Matthew Hotton (00622880)
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It’s confirmed, Transport and Technical Services have lost the plot! Higher parking charges to increase parking demand.
In truth this is a civil service admission that they having failed. The Connex contract is an expensive mess so let’s build a car park that nobody wants. Don’t worry a bevy of well paid directors will dance and weave to justify their salary and we will all pay the price.
A question for the politicians. Do we want more or less commuting? If the latter demonstrate your clarity of vision by finding a solution to the Bel Royal bottle neck. To difficult? W’are doomed!
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thats all the states ever want is money money money all the time, they dont pay for there parking so they dont care!
Stop wasting our money!
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There seems to be more common sense from the people who regularly write on these pages than any of the members of the states!
When are people finally going to say that this is enough and tell them all to shove off?
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why do we need to knock down a multi storey cark and build a new one?
how many spaces do we gain by doing so.
if we gain 100new spaces at a cost of £26,000,000 that is £260,000 (two hundred and sixty thousand pounds) per parking space
Why? O Why? O Why?
Does anybody in the States own a calculator?
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Do we really need a new car park ?
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Typical states nonsense. How can they expect the middle income earners to fork out more money for essential services. Why do we even need a town park on the gas place site. surley this project can be put on hold until the current economic conditions are rectified and the the states have a chance to put aside more funds for the construction of the car park without having to increase parking charges.
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I fear with a tedious inevitability this will become yet another concrete folly to the spend spend spend mentality of the States.
Again something we didn’t know we needed!
Stop chucking public money around, there is a recession! Oh saved again by our money in the Strategic Reserve, which will be squandered on covering up inept decision by our glorious leaders.
Sort out the public transport infrastructure and then see if need more car parks!
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Before a lot more people moan – think… This isn’t money for the States – this is money from car drivers for car drivers. If car drivers want a town park but want to keep the same number of spaces, an alternative location is needed.
Clearly the current charge for parking here is not covering the full cost of replacing Gas Place spaces in the desired time frame, which doesn’t surprise me given that it is still a lot cheaper to park here than say London.
The alternative is either to reduce the number of spaces or get the tax payer to fund it which I think is unfair to nearby residents, who won’t use it, and those who don’t drive cars.
So what’s it to be?
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well thats a inflation buster(not)
yet another stealth tax
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I reckon that will be around £8 a week for the average commuter.
But of course the boys and girls behind this wizard plan enjoy free parking at public expense so it won’t affect them!
Elsewhere the States are committing themselves to no new taxes. Maybe no new taxes but I bet charges for everything will appear and rise as the States up their demand for revenue.
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There is sufficient parking capacity in St Helier at present. So why pull down accomodation which is required, to give us something we don’t need ?
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Put more parking at the snow hill car park a few new floors there would be good.
Then access to the ramparts and hay presto a park too.
Why is this area of town forgotten about !
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Why oh why do we need this car park when people are crying out for housing?
Come up with a policy for keeping cars out of St Helier, and consider people who need a roof over their heads. An unwise proposal.
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Another scheme to raise money from the middle earners.
Who is going to benefit from this Town Park. Oh yes the ones that are living off tax payers money. I can just see it now, they enjoy the Town Park whilst the rest of us go out to work and pay more parking fees.
Oh and by the way states members and the high executives will not need to worry because they do not need to pay parking fees. So no problem there!!! Just the problem for the middle earners as usual.
I for one do not want a Town Park of which I will never use or have the benefit of. So why should I have to pay more in parking fees?
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lets just hand our our pay packets to the states it will make things easier…..
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What a terrible idea !
As usual lets hit the hardworking population the the pocket, when costs are high enough anyway and our taxes are increasing- increasing the parking by another 8.00 a week – or 35.00 a month – thanks a lot Mr Ministers !
Why do we need another car park. There are always spaces in the further out car parks- it just means being a little less lazy and walking for another 5 minutes- it may be good for us
The ‘fat cats’ often get free parking – surely this is a ‘benefit in kind’ and should be taxable ! Could the money not be made up here
Improve the bus service- rumour has it we have a great bus service, but has anyone tried getting an early bus into town to make it to the gym for an hour before work ? Or to get a bus to get you in for 8.45am without having to stand for 40 minutes in the traffic ???
I actually used to commute to london from my home quicker than making it to town some morning – and I know I could get the next boat home but I love mu husband and I would like to stay here thank you – just don;t like silly decisions on my adopted island !
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If there’s no money to build one don’t build it!! Why knock down Minden Place and build a new car park smack bang in the middle of a highly populated residential area?!
Seemingly our states members are lacking basic common sense and a basic understanding of mathematics!!
Turn Ann Court into a park.. this will be much more widely appreciated by those in the surrounding areas!
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Do we need a new carpark when the prices for parking go up the ordinary person will not be able to afford to use it. May be we should get the high paid states members to either start paying for their parking or have a cut in pay this money could then go to the new carpark.
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I reckon the comments in “and again” ‘s column about the early buses being “stuck in traffic for 40 mins” have hit the nail squarely on the head. Increase the parking fees in town by about 30-40 % to bring them up to the same level as London and other urban connurbations.
))
This can only reduce the number of commuters in cars, especially from the west which will improve the traffic flow thru’ Bel Royal, bring back a dozen or so double deckers for the peak times et voila! traffic problem solved!!
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Joker (8)…I’m a car driver and couldn’t care less about the town park so why should I pay for it? How long have they been talking about that anyway and how much will that cost?
I am till bewildered by the sums of money being quoted to knock down Ann Court and build a new car park. £23 million……is it made of gold!!!! I’d like to see a breakdown of how this would be charged to see where the money is actually going.
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….besides the proposed town park will just give the feral youth and homeless drunks somewhere else to hang about! How nice to have that great big Gas monstrosity right next to it too.
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An increase in the cost of using a car is well needed, we are paying considerably less than the UK for fuel and parking whilst having considerably more.
But another car park?? we have an excellent main bus station now. The money Should be put towards an excellent bus service.
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There was a time, around 30 or 40 years ago, when I actually enjoyed going into St. Helier. I would park in the only multi-storey, which was Green Street, and then pay for the time used. Then they built more car parks and introduced scratch cards.
Now I have to be able to predict the future to tell how long I need to park for. If I book in for 2 hours I might get out in less than an hour and feel a fool for paying too much. Sometimes it takes me longer and I have to rush back to my car before completing what I needed to do.
The answer for me is now to avoid going in at all. Almost everything I need, apart from food, can be bought on the internet and is much cheaper. It is also delivered to my home.
I wonder why I see so many shops that are empty on the rare occasions that I now cannot avoid going in?
The policy of throwing money at unwanted projects is great for the imported builders and architects but not for those of us who live here.
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What I do love about all these wonderful car parking ideas, is the total lack of thought given to those of us who drive larger veichles.
Yes I drive a land rover, the scary part its for my business, Not the school run!
When not driving that, I’m in my work van, like we don’t see any of these rare things with theirs ladders and extras strapped to the roofs.
So the point I’m making. When gas place goes and the open air at the waterfront goes. Where do “we” park? What provision shall be made for those us that to a point keep the island running. Telecoms, JEC, gas, plumbers the list really does go on. Will the public be happy to pay twice for parking.
Once for using it them selfs and twice for when they cover the cost of the tradesman who has put his prices up, well that’s if there’s any parking for him!
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Do i have to get another job on top of the shed load of hours i already work in order to keep treading water!!!Jersey born and bred and getting totally dissolusioned with the cost of everything on this Island,all this extra expense has to stop,its going to make alot of people ill…Im serioiusly thinking of emigrating!!!
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Difficult to add anything here as I agree with everything said so far. Why knock down a car park close to the town centre to build another one further away.
We are all having to tighten our belts, the states should do the same. Town park a nice to have, not a necessity.
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Buy a bike.
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The reason why they don’t have enough cash in the car park fund is because most of the revenue is used to subsidise Connex – that is a fact. It is also a fact that TTS always intended to raise the monthly parking charge to £100 per month – they are simply implementing this sooner rather than later. Demolishing Minden Place is a bad idea as this will impact on the markets – elderly people will not hike heavy bags of vegetables all the way to Ann Street car park. They’ll do more shopping at the supermarkets where they can park closer – again impacting on our local producers.Why on earth do we need a square at Minden Place – there’s one just up the road at West Centre?
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Yes ‘John (11) and ‘the future (12)’. Our Topsy Turvy administration plans to: 1) demolish accommodation which it is a scarce resource; 2) build a car park we don’t really want; 3) ingot underutilised resources such as Snow Hill; 4) prefer a car park that is less convenient for the public; 5) and then to charge the public for the privilege mismanagement..
Why, Oh why, Oh why have the TTS management lost the plot? The role of the general public is to serve the civil service? Come on Council of Ministers, get a grip!
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A couple of weeks ago we were being persuaded to buy locally and yet this proposed price rise does nothing more for the local economy other than to push us all that much further in to doing our shopping online.
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Silly me for thinking that we were supposed to be trying to deter people from bringing cars into town for environmental reasons.
I got fed up with the cost of parking in town three years ago and now I walk the 1 and a half miles in to work each day and jog home. I have lost two stone in weight and I am about £4,000 better off as a result.
Even if we did need a new car park, and I am far from convinced, now is certainly the wrong time to be considering building it.
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I thought we were in a recession…
So the states think we should increase parking charges (A TAX!) for the average joe!!
I would be very interested to see how many of the states members use a car park and not a private parking space.
How many of them scrape by each month on the edge of there overdrafts.
How many of them live in a house worth over a million quid!
Let’s face it, they are all old school who have inherited their money and their title!
Some things will never change…
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Absolute folly. The current system is appalling too: I have to park for 8 1/2 hours every day for work, which means I have the choice of either paying double for that 1/2 hour or taking the risk of not putting a card up for it. Doesn’t sound like much, but that extra half unit a day would set me back nearly £60 per year for parking time which I’m never going to use or get back – and that’s at the current price.
Imagine a shop that only accepted increments of £10 notes for any item and didn’t give change – how long would they stay in business?!
I think they need to figure out another source of income instead of taxing everyone’s essentials – we’ve already got GST on food, and many people are obliged to drive and park (the bus service is shocking). How about a little more tax for the multi, multi-millionaires on the island, or a little less cash spent on rubbish we really don’t need (perhaps even having a referendum for something a bit more significant than going to euro time!!).
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£28 million pounds to get rid of 616 parking spaces and replace it with a multi storey car park?
Wasn’t the idea to provide more parking for the public while providing an open space at Gas Place?
Why knock down Minden Place?
Surely this can be used to provide disabled parking and OAP parking leaving Ann Street for the more able bodied public?
This has been going on for years and wasn’t the park at Gas place meant to be for the millenium?
If it takes this long for the States to provide open space for the public but a few weeks for them to approve a mass development on the Waterfront then Jersey is Doomed just like Bermuda.
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Another point that I think is relative, is the recent planning review and the decision to shoehorn a number of other smaller properties in the town area.
I do understand that we need to be realistic and for many of us our dream of a three bed house, with garden and garage in the country is unrealistic, but no wonder we all want to live in the country!
Perhaps they will be encouraging us to sleep in our cars soon to save space!
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Moi
Fair enough, but people seem to be changing their minds with the wind… 10 years ago, backed by Crowcroft, and according to Jersey’s 2nd largest petition in history (I guess it was about as informative as that wonderful GST petition – no wonder the States pay no attention to them) and people on the news saying how wonderful it would be as part of the Millenium project… now it seems people have cold feet. OK so this project is 10 years late but that’s what happens when everyone gets excited demanding something far more difficult than it seems to develop without proper consultation.
A lot of people are also saying they don’t want to replace the spaces lost from Gas Place well that’s fine too if you want longer waits or have to park miles away from work. The Ann Court car park development was also backed by Crowcroft in his last election campaign. My point – it seems that those posting here appear to be as indecisive as their politicians – hope none of them signed that petition!
£23m doesn’t surprise me given the cost of concrete and over 70% of the world’s concrete supply being shipped to its highest bidder – China. Most people do not have an understanding of how much industrial projects actually cost.
Demolishing Minden – not so strange when you consider it was probably agreed by Crowcroft as part of his original plans to pedestrianise town. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Minden was readly to fall over anyway given its age.
Again I ask – what is it to be?
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Nellie 28. If that is the case regarding the subsidy to Connex. Wouldn’t the States be better off reviewing it’s shocking service otherwise they are throwing money down the drain. If the bus service was better and more frequent then i for one would much prefer to use it than drive in to work. Then, if I fancied a pint to unwind after work I wouldn’t have to leave my car in town…bliss. If the bus service was drastically improved then there would be no need for a new car park and all those who want a town park can benefit too.
What I find disgusting is the way the bus drivers and management treat the paying public with contempt. Maybe the good old bus inspector should be re-introduced!!
Every profit making business has targets and service level agreements in place to increase their revenue and make themselves appealing to new customers…..why hasn’t the bus service???
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Will the design of the new car park allow for when we are told by the European Federation that we have to drive on the other side of the road?
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Higher parking fee = less cars on the road = people that get buses will not have to sit in traffic for 45 minutes!!
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Quite right Trixy, it’s just that you’ll have to wait 90 minutes for a bus that’s not full.
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Can anyone out there explain why it is more important to house cars than people? Purpose built flats close to shops and services always seemed a great idea to me, specially for the elderly and for those with young children.
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Parking in Jersey is way too cheap. Double the price of parking and invest heavily in the bus service and hey presto, no need for new car park and less cars on the road. If the rich want to drive and park in town they can but at a price.
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Please connex bring in a bus services that runs reasonably close to my house (st ouen) soon before I go bankrupt!!
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The thing that gets me is the argument we don’t have enough cash and we need to tighten our belts whilst the States haemorrage it at a great rate.
How about getting rid of the ludicrous scratch-card system in the multi-stories for a start?
It’d remove what must be an enormous printing cost, a vast amount of refuse and litter, and the necessity for packs of traffic wardens. I’m not saying get rid of the wardens, they need jobs too, just move them into another dept where they can be better utilised.
Bring in an increase in parking charges, they’re still very low folks. Anyone who thinks they’re excessive should try living in London or Dublin on lower wages than they currently earn. This would force more to use buses which would then have to improve service and reduce traffic and pollution at the same time. It’d reduce the necessity for additional spaces and the increase in charges being paid by those who continue to drive coupled with the reduction in printing costs etc would easily make up any shortfall in the states coffers.
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trixy(39). i cant cart my daily working tool boxes on the bus, same as many in the build or service industry.
the extra £8.00 a week has to come from somewhere,so will you pay your builder or repairman the difference or expect him or his family to cut back on somthing, to get work ot the moment he or she may be heading for the breadline anyway.
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By building a multi storey car park in place of Ann Court is only going to bring more traffic into the town.
Surely a better solution is to keep Minden Place car park for shoppers, build a new multi storey car park in Gas Place and use the Ann Court site for a town park, giving the town a much needed open space for people to enjoy.
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Parking in Jersey is very cheap compared to many places I’ve been to in various parts of the UK. So raising the price no prob for me, if the money gets better utilised. Is there a reason why Green street isn’t utilised properly. Wouldn’t extending the car park not be a sensible option?
And why turn Minden into a public square, when it will be 100 yards down the road from an existing public square (west centre and the cool cows)? Have I missed something?
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oh dear. oh dear oh dear!
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This island is constantly taking money money and more money….you still have never confirmed what the plan is with respects to GST money taken from us for the last year, do you know what? you are a pack of money grabbing explict delete as you just don’t care about what is going on with the current issues recession it called just a reminder…….get a grip and get someone to run the island accurately and thoroughly remember we are all suffer at this present time and all you think about is increasing parking……in Guernsey they don’t pay for parking……
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Great idea not. Why knock down an existing residential area to build a car park? Have people forgotten there is a multi storey already being built in Kensington Place?
I’m sure Toddys’ and the Earl Granville will be delighted with their new neighbours.
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What I do not understand is that why they have to knock Minden down and build another?
Connex is not really convenience if you try to encourage people using a bus services, would be good if you could do return tickets & better time tables.
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Colin (no 47) Yes where I now live in England parking by the hour is slightly dearer than in Jersey but we have many areas which are completely free for half an hour(near the banks) or in one case two hours (and this is very central and in a popular tourist area)If I recall correctly there are no such areas in St Helier where you can just pop in to the bank/shop for two minutes without putting a ticket on.
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Double or treble the parking cost.
start a congestion charge for anyone driving inside the ring road, that will make up the shortfall from existing revenue.
Only the rich who can afford it or those that need to and can recharge their customers will then be using SH roads and car parks
Kick out connex
States to run a free regular frequent bus service that serves all the island.
Shut Minden.
complete the millennium park.
everybody’s happy.(or not)
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On a serious note:
I have lived in several major cities across europe and the uk, fair enough…their parking charges are much much higher than Jersey’s…
…but…
They have fantastic cheap, reliable buses running throughout the day and late into the evening.
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Who is interested in a town park, there is a perfectly good park just 5 minutes walk from Gas Place called ‘Howard Davis Park’ are people too lazy these days to walk to a park?
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What is wrong with the Parks we already have???
Milbrook, West Park, Peoples Park, Howard davis Park, Not to mention the Old Weighbridge, the Royal Square,the steam clock grounds, The Water Front Park, West Mount& South Hill???
how many People do the States predict will be sitting on their Bums all summer? I know I won’t I’ll be working my fingers to the Bone trying to comfortably afford £8/ day to Park my damn Car!
oh i get it! its not about what we want and need, its about slinging our money at something we don’t. Just to buff the ego of whoever had the daft idea.
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Lost all faith
11,000 people signed one of those stupid petitions about 10 years ago demanding another town park. That’s where all this has come from.
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Not only the parks “Lost all faith” listed, but what about the many beaches. Why not do sometjing to spruce some of them up instead…or somewhere for the kids to play sports at least in town (like FB fields)…maybe Fort Regent could be put to better use. There are plenty more options instead of demolishing and re-building…utterly pointless and more importantly a complete waste of taxpayers money during hard times! These politicians need a collective labotomy!
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”Joker” I agree ‘stupid petition’, 19,000 people signed a petition against GST not even a year ago and it made no difference.
11,000 hardly represents a majority. I’d Bet if 12,000 petitioned against it, the states would not give two hoots. (is that because some how someone up there will benefit financially?)
We ‘minions’ have no say.
I’d definitely agree with ”Moi” Improve what we have, don’t just give us another high maintainance public Park.
clean up the broken Glass and empty Cans and spend a bit of money making sure they aren’t misused and are maintained then the ones we allready have would more than satisfy our needs. It sickens me that i can’t take my kids for a play on the swings without worrying that they’ll fall on something nasty.
I’d encourage anyone who wants to know how the Parks are used (abused) go up to the TA Park, the southhill Park or Winy Churchill or pick a couple of them, any of the open ones and go for a drive any night on the school holidays or the weekend at around nine o’clock and you’ll see whats wrong with giving us a new park.
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