Cheshire East Council are intending to launch a new initiative which will introduce up to 4 days of free parking a year in Council owned car parks where charges apply.
The offer of free parking will be considered for those car parks predominantly used by shoppers, including South Street car park and can be on any four days in the next 12 months.
A spokesperson for Cheshire East Council said: "The primary purpose of this incentive is to support our towns and provide a flexible incentive which can be used in the run up to Christmas or spread throughout the year to aid key town events. This is in addition to the free parking after 3pm at certain designated car parks within the borough.
"The offer of free parking will be considered on those car parks predominantly used by shoppers and the parking services team would welcome advanced liaison (so as to ensure there are no other programmed events taking place) and notice of the chosen days, when those decisions have been made by participating town councils upon consultation with their elected members, residents, shoppers, visitors, businesses, workers and commuters.
"In return, the council requests feedback on these initiatives to ascertain their effectiveness for both shoppers and businesses.
"In order to avoid all the spaces being taken up by workers/commuters, free parking will only start after 10am. Participating town councils will be asked to advertise and promote these free days on the designated sites on the days in question and that any such material is removed in a timely fashion afterwards, to avoid any confusion for service users.
"This is a temporary incentive which will perhaps accommodate those attending special events in the towns over the next 12 month period."
Cheshire East requested feedback from the Parish Council on the proposal, which they discussed at their meeting on Monday, 12th December.
Parish councillors were somewhat surprised by the initiative and concerned that it would lead to parking spaces being taken up for most of the day by people working in the village.
Councillor Rachael Grantham described the initiative as "a bit odd" whilst Councillor Geoff Hall said "It's seems a peculiar idea to me."
The Parish Council could pick any four days in a year and decided to request free parking in South Street car park from the Wednesday to Saturday the week before Christmas.
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