'It should have happened to start with'

HIGH STREET PARKING CHARGES REVIEW WELCOMED

- By GARETH LIGHTFOOT

A BUSINESS forum leader has welcomed news of a council review of controversial town centre parking charges, saying: "It should have happened to start with.

Paddy Morton, manager of the 170-year-old Strickland & Holt family business on Yarm High Street and chair of Yarm Business Forum, presented a petition on behalf of Stockton West MP Matt Vickers to Stockton Council in May.

He said the loss of one hour's free parking replaced with a £1.50 charge for three hours in Stockton and Yarm town centres was "the wrong decision".

Impassioned pleas from businesspeople, who said the new charges since February were driving away customers and threatening livelihoods, with the petition and a Conservative motion, led to a unanimous vote from councillors to call on leaders to reverse the parking policy.

Now the council's leadership is being asked to review the charges.

The authority says it has monitored the impact of the removal of the first free hour between February and May 2025, and "provisional data shows footfall in Yarm and Stockton is higher every month than it was in 2024 and 2023"

However, Mr Morton said this did not match the experience of businesspeople.

The council says it took the decision to remove the first hour free last October to balance the costs of maintaining and managing car parks with the desire to make town centres attractive to shoppers.