Conwy Council urged to reconsider Christmas parking charges to help traders
Conwy Council has been urged to reconsider its plans to charge for parking over Christmas in order to assists traders.
A number of local authorities in North Wales are offering concession periods in their owned-and-operated car parks at various times over the festive period.
At present, Conwy Council is one of only two authorities in the region not to offer a county-wide Christmas parking concession.
Ahead of Small Business Saturday, the Member of the Senedd for Aberconwy – Janet Finch-Saunders MS – has written to the leader of the council to to ask them to review the position to encourage more people to visit town centres in the area.
The Conservative MS said: “The Christmas trading period is incredibly important for our home-grown, small and medium sized businesses.
“However, at present, Conwy is only one of two local authorities in North Wales who are set not to offer a county-wide Christmas parking concession.
“Elsewhere in North Wales, local authorities have taken proactive steps to ensure that residents and visitors are enticed to spend their hard-earned money in support of local businesses.
“I am concerned that this may place our towns at a disadvantage when trying to entice shoppers to our high streets.
“How our homegrown businesses have successfully bridged the challenge of the pandemic is a testament to their resilience, innovation and optimism.
“Ahead of Small Business Saturday, I was most pleased to ask the local authority to reconsider their Christmas parking plans so that we may support them further.”
Small Business Saturday is a grassroots, non-commercial campaign, which highlights small business successes and encourages consumers to “shop local”.
This year’s campaign, marking its ninth year, will take place today (Saturday 4th December 2021).
It is hoped that the success of last December, which saw 15.4 million people taking part across the United Kingdom, spending a record £1.1 billion, may be surpassed this year.
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