Parking review under way in Helston (From This is The West Country)

Parking review under way in Helston

8:40am Monday 8th October 2012 in Cornwall

The future of parking in Helston is under review in a bid to encourage more people to shop in the town.

Over the next two weeks shoppers, residents, workers and visitors are being urged to fill in a questionnaire that is asking for views on all aspects of the town's car parking.

This has been put together by Helston Business Improvement Partnership (HBIP), which is carrying out a review.

Company secretary Rachel Jones said: “Parking is a serious issue for the high street and can affect footfall to towns. Therefore, the HBIP has set up a working group whose sole aim is to investigate this issue.

“To begin with we want to find out what people think of the parking provisions in the town centre and have produced a questionnaire to allow us to gather this information.”

She added the group wanted feedback from everyone who used the town.

Questions include how often the person visits the town centre, how far away they live and where they usually park.

Opinions are asked over whether the 30-minute free parking in Meneage Street and Coinagehall Street should be extended - and if so to 45 minutes or an hour - how much they would pay for an hour's parking up to a day and whether they would use the car parks more if parking was free before 10am and after 3pm (instead of before 9am and after 4pm).

There is also a space to leave extra comments, for example disabled parking, on-street parking, motorcycle parking and permit parking, with the HBIP acknowledging not all aspects could be covered as part of the limited number of questions.

The information received will then be used to submit a report from Cornwall Council. It will also be published and shared with the public in October.

Questionnaires can be picked up from some shops in Helston and can also be downloaded from Facebook - the public should search “Helston Cornwall (Official)” and business owners “Helston Traders”.

Completed forms should be returned to Costa Coffee on Meneage Street or the Cofee Bean on Coinagehall Street by Sunday, October 14.

Comments(17)

THORQUIP says...
11:45am Mon 8 Oct 12

What a silly way to run a survey in this day and age.Return questionnaires to the Coffe Bean?? Pay to park to return form about parking. Don't think you are going to get many forms in. Certainly not from your target group, i.e those who are reluctant to park in Helston. Gerrit?

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TheOriginaDelboy says...
5:56pm Mon 8 Oct 12

THORQUIP wrote:
What a silly way to run a survey in this day and age.Return questionnaires to the Coffe Bean?? Pay to park to return form about parking. Don't think you are going to get many forms in. Certainly not from your target group, i.e those who are reluctant to park in Helston. Gerrit?

In reply to Thorquip,

Bearing in mind parking is free for 30 minutes on both main streets where both shops are located delivering a form will be nil parking cost. Also council car parks are free after 4pm.

Not mentioned in this report is that you can also download it from the below link (but this is a rival news reporting site)

http://www.helstonpe
ople.co.uk/say-parki
ng-Helston/story-170
26543-detail/story.h
tml

and email it back to that website.

People aren't reluctant to park in Helston (most car parks are usually full), this questionnaire is more about finding out what may be done to improve parking by consulting the public and reporting back to Cornwall Council on behalf of the public and businesses of Helston.

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telstar1962 says...
9:55am Tue 9 Oct 12

''People aren't reluctant to park in Helston (most car parks are usually full)''

The Original DelBoy,in my experience,most car parks are NOT usually full. If they are full, Helston does not have a problem attracting cars,so where are all the people who park the cars in these parks ??

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meerkats says...
10:14am Tue 9 Oct 12

i have never seen all car parks in helston full.

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DCI Jen says...
12:06pm Tue 9 Oct 12

I found the Coffee Bean shut in the late afternoon. Most of the 30 min bays full and you would have to circle the town several times wasting petrol looking for a free bay. Why didn't they just put the survey on the Helston town council website instead of having to mess about downloading it. I wouldn't consider the helstonpeople.co.uk was a rival news reporting site, there is no competition with the Packet, the Packet dosn't just cover Helston for a start.

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Lord Barrington Forbes-Smythe says...
2:15pm Tue 9 Oct 12

I think the parking provision in Helston is pretty good and really not the key issue: in my view, it's the right range of shops that Helston lacks. If you can't pretty much get everything you need in one fell swoop, so to speak, you'll go elsewhere.
I lived in the town until recently moving towards Falmouth, and the number of times I had to travel to Truro or Redruth/Camborne for fairly basic household items... As quaint and attractive as the cobbled streets and small shops of Helston are, it won't attract serious numbers until the gaping shortfalls are filled. I know there are some larger outlets for certain things on Water-Ma-Trout estate, but not that many people are going to include that kind of industrial area in their shopping trip as well as the town centre.
There’s a tremendous imbalance in Helston now, with the 2 mega-supermarkets. It would have been preferable to allow a DIY superstore to open up somewhere nearby rather than another/larger supermarket. And while I’m all for quaint independent retailers when it comes to making a town more interesting, they do tend to overprice everything. If I know I can get a certain tin of paint for £7.99 at TM in Falmouth, why am I going to bother with Helston’s local hardware store and its considerable mark-up? It may possibly be a bit friendlier (although that’s debateable) but when money’s tight, friendliness comes a poor second to value…. I’m afraid the town centre desperately needs an all-round draw selling cheap household goods, such as a smaller branch of the aforementioned Falmouth store. That would bring large numbers of people into Helston from its vast catchment area who really need something from that store, rather than a few people who fancy browsing in small and often overpriced & under-stocked stores.
Not easy in these times I know but the town also needs to be gaining high street clothing stores rather than shedding them, and in the largest available premises... well at least one or two! If youngsters and their families know that the Helston branches of the high street fashion stores hold very limited stock as is the current case, they will just head off to Truro or elsewhere and never even give it a chance.
As for the premises to be used for all this, well that would call for a degree of creativity and vision that goes well beyond hanging baskets and parking surveys, etc.
If there aren’t suitable premises available, then maybe they could to a limited extent be created (on parts of existing car parks, maybe, or other underused areas very close to the 2 main streets.
I know this is controversial as it requires some major change and would be easier to achieve out of recession, but if the alternative of just continually tweaking little things continues, we can look forward to many more years of discussing Helston’s problems on this website and elsewhere with no discernible progress.

I think the parking provision in Helston is pretty good and really not the key issue: in my view, it's the right range of shops that Helston lacks. If you can't pretty much get everything you need in one fell swoop, so to speak, you'll go elsewhere. I lived in the town until recently moving towards Falmouth, and the number of times I had to travel to Truro or Redruth/Camborne for fairly basic household items... As quaint and attractive as the cobbled streets and small shops of Helston are, it won't attract serious numbers until the gaping shortfalls are filled. I know there are some larger outlets for certain things on Water-Ma-Trout estate, but not that many people are going to include that kind of industrial area in their shopping trip as well as the town centre. There’s a tremendous imbalance in Helston now, with the 2 mega-supermarkets. It would have been preferable to allow a DIY superstore to open up somewhere nearby rather than another/larger supermarket. And while I’m all for quaint independent retailers when it comes to making a town more interesting, they do tend to overprice everything. If I know I can get a certain tin of paint for £7.99 at TM in Falmouth, why am I going to bother with Helston’s local hardware store and its considerable mark-up? It may possibly be a bit friendlier (although that’s debateable) but when money’s tight, friendliness comes a poor second to value…. I’m afraid the town centre desperately needs an all-round draw selling cheap household goods, such as a smaller branch of the aforementioned Falmouth store. That would bring large numbers of people into Helston from its vast catchment area who really need something from that store, rather than a few people who fancy browsing in small and often overpriced & under-stocked stores. Not easy in these times I know but the town also needs to be gaining high street clothing stores rather than shedding them, and in the largest available premises... well at least one or two! If youngsters and their families know that the Helston branches of the high street fashion stores hold very limited stock as is the current case, they will just head off to Truro or elsewhere and never even give it a chance. As for the premises to be used for all this, well that would call for a degree of creativity and vision that goes well beyond hanging baskets and parking surveys, etc. If there aren’t suitable premises available, then maybe they could to a limited extent be created (on parts of existing car parks, maybe, or other underused areas very close to the 2 main streets. I know this is controversial as it requires some major change and would be easier to achieve out of recession, but if the alternative of just continually tweaking little things continues, we can look forward to many more years of discussing Helston’s problems on this website and elsewhere with no discernible progress. Lord Barrington Forbes-Smythe

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TheOriginaDelboy says...
2:33pm Tue 9 Oct 12

telstar1962, I guess it depends on what time you visit the car parks as to whether they are full or not. Obviously after 4pm Helston begins closing down, hence the Council car parks are free. When the cinema is open the car park directly opposite is often stacked out with cars then the other car parks are not busy because most of town has shut.

In reply to your question "where are the people who park in these car parks", many people who use the car parks are living, working or shopping in town. Everyone needs to park somewhere.

This questionnaire is not about attracting car drivers to town, it is about agreeing with as many car drivers as possible to a fair car parking price so that we can address Cornwall Council as to how the public would prefer parking tariffs set (i.e change the hourly rate), due to many people seeing the recent (ish) changes to Council car parks as being expensive and whilst we are asking this, why not see if there are any original ideas from drivers to alternative parking options (i.e. is extending free parking bay times a good idea?).

meerkats, I refer to my previous comment.

DCI Jen, You say found The Coffee Bean closed late afternoon. That is because it closes at 3pm but it is equipped with a working letterbox. Costa just around the corner is open till 6pm and you say "Most" of the parking bays were full, that leaves some that are not full. I would suggest not wasting your petrol driving round and just drop it in when you find yourself in town, alternatively complete it online at helstonpeople.co.uk.

If you do not consider helstonpeople.co.uk to be a rival, good for you, but for whatever reason The Packet did not mention it.

The reason the questionnaire was not put on the council website is because it is not a council questionnaire.

I hope this answers your issues.

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DCI Jen says...
3:03pm Tue 9 Oct 12

TheOriginalDelboy, you were the one that mentioned free carparks after 4, not much use if some of the shops are shut like The Coffee Bean, yeah it has a letter box but i can't buy a coffee through a letterbox, and Costa is hardly just round the corner, they are at opposite ends of the town. I agree with LBFS, the right shops and right prices are more important than a parking survey. So what happened to the new website launched with the 'three little words' is the survey on there.

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DCI Jen says...
3:24pm Tue 9 Oct 12

Before anyone says why don't I look on the new Helston website, i can't remember the website address. I only looked on it once and all it had was about 3 little words.

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meerkats says...
3:47pm Tue 9 Oct 12

LBFS you have hit the nail on the head , its decent shops that Helston needs, to attract people in. There was a trago mills in wendron street many years ago but sadly it closed down. we tend to go to towns such as camborne and redruth for shops like wilkinsons and iceland . ,both which helston could do with..i do try and support the local shops as much as poss but you cant if you cant get what you want. dont think parking surveys should be a priority,they should do a survey on what shops people want.

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TheOriginaDelboy says...
3:57pm Tue 9 Oct 12

DCI Jen,

I am stating a fact that car parks are free after 4pm, who uses them is entirely up to them. I am not saying it is a selling point, however many shops are still open.

If posting your questionnaire at The Coffee Bean and walking to Costa for coffee on the adjoining street is not an option, you can either use Mothers or Londis for a takeaway coffee or go to Costa in the first place and drop off your questionnaire there.

Yes I entirely agree with LBFS said however we have options of either sitting waiting for these massive companies to come to town (in shops way too small, which LBFS mentions) or doing nothing. Or doing something.

We have chosen to do something. I refer back to a comment I made some time ago, this is just a parking questionnaire about parking prices. It is not to do encouraging more car drivers to town (if it does yippee), we are not hoping to rescue Helston based on a parking questionnaire.

Helston will survive with or without our input, but do we want to survive with Helston, of course we do.

With reference to your question about the new website, this is why the HBIP need to do things without publicly announcing what we are currently working on, people want to know more all the time. It's not wanting to keep the public in the dark for suspicious reasons, it's trying to avoid wasting time on unnecessary questions. The HBIP have full time jobs and many work for the HBIP at the same time. So things happen in true Cornish spirit, dreckly.The site is probably a dreckly month away from being complete.

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Gill Zella Martin says...
4:00pm Tue 9 Oct 12

The car-park charges have only relatively recently been changed in Helston by Cornwall Council, which I personally feel are currently reasonable given the average shopping time spent in Helston. Unless free parking is introduced by way of being funded from the 'windfall money' then I see little point in changing the car-park charges because you will never please all of the people all of the time on this issue. As Cornwall Council are aware of how much revenue they can make from Helston council owned car-parks I doubt very much there will be any leeway on those charges.

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TheOriginaDelboy says...
4:02pm Tue 9 Oct 12

@meerkats

Any questions on what shops are wanted are based solely on people's personal wish lists.

If there was a big enough demand for big brands to be here consistently do you not think they would be here? If they thought there was money to be made?

Anyone can do a shopping survey with list of big brand names, how do we get them to setup in Helston?

I'm not going to say the parking survey is just a parking survey anymore but it is.

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TheOriginaDelboy says...
4:15pm Tue 9 Oct 12

In reply to Gill (hello Gill, hope you're well)....

You are correct in everything you say. I can't please people on here, let alone everyone else :o(

We have however been told by a Cornwall councillor that if we can make the financial side add up, a proposal would be considered. There are other issues in the questionnaire too.

The reason for the subject is because a lot of business owners hear from customers complaining about the parking charges. So we introduced the "somewhat limp" refund scheme. Then the new town manager arrived and asked businesses what their biggest concerns were, and the reply was parking charges. So it's kind of snowballed from there.

It's just survey ;o)

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meerkats says...
4:29pm Tue 9 Oct 12

TheoriginalDelboy you have explained the situation well in your last comment i actually do not use facebook but will pick up a questionnaire from one of the shops. take on board your reply re shopping survey too .

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Gill Zella Martin says...
5:37pm Tue 9 Oct 12

Dear Delboy, Thank you very much for your feedback. If you plan on negotiating with Cornwall Council, regarding any parking issues then please consider negotiating free parking over the Christmas period, last year (I think it was last year) Cornwall Council promoted Scrooge and withdrew the usual free parking over the Christmas period. It would not have seemed so bad charging for parking during this period if they donated the revenue to charity.

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TheOriginaDelboy says...
5:52pm Tue 9 Oct 12

Hi Gill

Nice ideas.I love the ideas and I will put them forward and see if anything can be done.

Unfortunately I fear not much will happen unless we can figure a way of the council not losing the money from the periods takings. Maybe they could find a festive itch that needs scratching.

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