News, sport and entertainment from the Bournemouth Echo and Dorset Echo.

METER MAN!

From the Echo, first published Saturday 19th Feb 2005.

PARKING charges should be introduced across practically the whole of Bournemouth, it has been claimed.

A councillor will make it his personal crusade to bring parking meters to Charminster, Westbourne, Winton and Southbourne - if that's what traders want.

Cllr Roger West believes introducing parking fees in suburban shopping areas could benefit local businesses and shoppers by freeing up spaces.

Boosted by the support he has received from traders, he will ask cabinet members on Wednesday to consider rolling out meters borough-wide.

But his views are likely to prove controversial, with many shop owners fearful of losing trade to out-of-town centres like Castlepoint.

Cllr West, who represents Redhill and Northbourne, said: "I want to know from the traders' associations of Charminster, Westbourne, Winton and Southbourne whether a greater turnover of spaces in front of their shops, linked with better enforcement, would increase their trade.

"I've already had a positive response from traders in Moordown and in Charminster to this approach.

"I think on-street parking would be beneficial to the small shopkeepers who rely on the rapid turnover of car parking spaces in front of their shops - much the same way as it has worked for the traders of Westover Road."

But Wayne Sheppard of Winton Traders Association said he has already made it "crystal clear" that business owners in Winton do not want meters.

And at a meeting with councillors last week, he was given an assurance there were no plans for meters in Winton or Charminster.

"This local authority is starting to go in a direction where they are making it very difficult for people to support local businesses," he said.

"They are driving them to the big national chains and out of town shopping areas."

He added small businesses in Winton were already facing a massive rate increase and said: "A lot of these people are hanging on by their fingernails.

"This attitude of trying to stop people using their cars when they clearly want to use them cannot be tolerated much longer."

Mike Vincent, president of Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce, is supportive of meters in main shopping areas - but only if the charges are 20 pence an hour or less.

"If you take Westover Road and Hinton Road, the majority of traders admit that since those meters have been there, things have been better," he said.

"If the fees were 20 pence an hour, I think the majority of the traders would support them. If it was more than that, the answer would be no, they would just drive trade away."

First published: February 19

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