Waitrose has taken over management of The Parade car park after reaching an agreement with Aberdeen Asset Managers, the freeholders of the site. This follows Cheshire East Council's decision to terminate their lease as the car park had been running at a loss.
New signage has been installed and one of the men working there informed me parking will be free this week, until the pay and display machines are installed next week.
From Tuesday 5th May, the cost to park will be increased to 50p per hour, it was previously 40p for one hour and 80p for two.
The two hour maximum stay will remain, with no return within two hours.
Parking charges will apply for a longer period, between 10am and 8pm Monday to Saturday and charges will also apply from 10am to 6pm on Sundays. Parking will be free for blue badge holders.
Waitrose Branch Manager, Ian Cooper, said: "As a local trader we felt it was important to safeguard its future as a shoppers' car park. We hope shoppers will understand that we have made a small increase with the aim of improving parking for those visiting the village in the future."
A notice at The Parade states that "Not displaying a valid ticket or exceeding 2 hours may result in a £50 parking charge."
Waitrose is also considering a new layout to improve flow around the car park, which currently causes major disruption during peak times.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Although I would have liked to see some changes made to the layout of the car park, I was happy with the current arrangement in place. However the decision taken by the council to relinquish the lease due to it running at a substantial loss for them, has made that no longer possible. Ultimately the decision to take on the lease by Waitrose was made to prevent a third party from taking it over and potentially increasing charges substantially. We would have had no control over this at all. Yes that could be seen as a move to protect our business but I would also argue that it also protects the interests of our customers and all residents/visitors that use the car park. By taking over the lease, it will be managed more effectively by us and hopefully in the near future we will be carrying out some work that will improve the flow. Unfortunately, the cost of the lease and the cost to maintain the car park has meant that we need to charge, but I can assure all concerned that this is not to make money, purely to off set some of the cost of taking on the lease etc. If any customer would like further clarity I would welcome the opportunity to meet with them in the store and discuss it in person. Regards, Ian Cooper
"...totally disingenuous and shameful... an outrage...".
What planet do these people live on? I can think of quite a few things in Alderley which really do fit into those categories.
I am aware that previous intervention prevented Waitrose returning parking fee after purchase, perhaps that may change,....
You miss the point entirely. If I park in the Waitrose Car Park to get a sandwich from Murray's the excellent LOCAL sandwich shop, I now pay Waitrose a fee (and an extra 25%) to add to their substantial profits. That's (funnily enough) a 25% mark up for my sandwich. It's the Wall-Mart strategy- make life as difficult as you can for the local small businesses, squeeze them out of existence and charge what you like.
That's the real world!!!
I also believe that Waitrose should re-imburse the cost of the 50p/£1. parking ticket when presenting your Waitrose Card at the check-out whilst paying for your goods.
That way, you're using their car park to shop and Waitrose will reward their loyal customers.
Any other drivers parking their cars there will not have their 50p/£1. returned.
I think it's called customer relations ( note to AEPC) and yes it's good Ian is trying to explain ; but that doesn't mean you have to agree with it , unless you do want less people to park there
V
today, like yesterday, I watched vehicle-jousting in the car park by Waitrose.
Anything that improves the present horror show is welcome surely.
Its time AEPC challenged Waitrose as to the justification of their actions in changing the charging structure and times which are not in the interests to any other shop keeper or trading establishment in the village, nor shopper/visitor to the Village - it should be used as a car park for the general public and not for Waitrose customers alone!
For Waitrose to state, as the Duty Manager told me, "they couldn't afford to run the car park and keep the pricing as before - but they can afford to keep serving free coffee and newspapers!! He also said Waitrose were concerned that "if Waitrose didn't take over the running of the Car Park, then a private firm may take over and in doing so, they could put up the cost to park " - and then Waitrose did exactly that!! I feel that as a responsible retailer it should respect the interest of other retailers and the shoppers instead of monopolising both the retail opportunities and now the parking in the village.
Great customer service Waitrose , time for a boycott !!!!
Cheers
Ruth
Maybe Vin is mistaken and what he perceived as parking tickets are just warning notices. Easy mistake to make unless you actually had the chance to read the notice yourself.
Your offer to rescind the notices seems fair, as does the statement that you already made about the parking situation at Waitrose Alderley Edge.
Vin is a visionary and eventually his driverless cars and ticketless wardens will come to pass, until then we all have to be nice to each other.
Alan, I accept my visions will take a while to come to fruition , what I hope is that in addressing parking or other issues that the PC and others will thing more widely that often is the case
And for sure we should be nice to each other in this sadly divided country :-)
19.24 Saturday Evening
Battle for 5 minutes to enter car park risking both increase in blood pressure and damage to car ( mainly due to to many spaces resulting in terrible layout)
Rejoice at finding space.
Barely have time to unbuckle seat belt before over officious parking attendant approaches car and starts to hover.
Blood pressure starts to rise again.
Purchase ticket although it's 19.31 on a Saturday night and all I need is a pint of milk and loaf of bread.
Relax with coffee...... First find Waitrose card and member of staff so I can get a cup.... ( Clearly we cannot be trusted in Alderley not to abuse the machine.)
Time to shop .... Get stared at and followed by the security guard as I do every night.
Blood pressure rising again......
Decide to air my grievances with the manager....
I'm apparently the 15th person to complain about the parking issues and he tells me to shop between 20:00 and 22:00.
Informs me that the carpark cost 100k a year to lease.
I suggest that it was Waitroses'choice to site their store in that location and maybe they should refund the parking fee from the shopping bill.
He advised me he didn't like my attitude and could shop elsewhere .
Blood pressure rising again.......
As I left the store I then watched stooped elderly gentleman return to his car with one small shopping bag to be presented with Fixed Penalty Notice.
" tell your friends it's a PAY and Display " said the over officious parking attendant .
Got in car battled out of car park drove to Sainsburys
And they all lived happily ever after
THE END
I would love to talk through your experience in person. Perhaps next time you are in the shop you would be kind enough to ask for me and we can discuss it over a coffee? Clearly this is not what I want you to experience and would like to verify with you what happened before I follow it up.
There are a number of points that concern me. I was not in yesterday so don't know exactly what happened, but as I put before there have been no fixed penalty notices issued this week at all, and I have phoned the Branch over the weekend to confirm this. If the security guard is over zealous then I will discuss this with him. Waitrose took the decision to ask customers to present their My Waitrose cards at the welcome desk to enable us to capture more effectively the number of free coffees being issued.
Look forward to talking to you.
Regards, Ian Cooper
I think the changes are great, after months of having to shop at Sainburys on my way home from work, I can now shop in the village where I live as there are spaces available.
How would you feel if NCP had taken on the car park and charged £1 per 30 mins?
Also thank you to those that have taken the time to come into the Branch and discuss the situation personally with me. Mr Maynard - thank you for coming into the store on Thursday evening and allowing me the opportunity to discuss rationally my decision making, even if you went away unhappy. I would welcome further personal dialogue, but as I said on Thursday evening I would like that to remain a rational discussion.
I would just like to recap again what I have put in place following the changes made to charging and charging times
I have instructed my car park attendant not to ticket any customer if they have popped in for five to ten minutes to pick up a sandwich or click and collect.
We have purposely not issued a single parking ticket to date in any evening to enable the residents and visitors to the village to get used to the changes to charging times.
We have tried to have a partner in the car park in the morning before ten to alert customers to the fact that with the changes to the timings the car park is free before ten, a move that has been very much welcomed.
We have had the car park surveyed so that we can decide the best course of action to redesign the spaces/ flow, in order to make the parking easier.
Finally, I am very proud of my Branch and the Partners that work there. I believe that they work extremely hard to make the store a pleasant environment to shop and to maintain the village feel.
Alderley Edge is a wonderful vibrant village, which unfortunately has created a conundrum with car parking. I would have preferred to remain out of the long standing debate on parking, but unfortunately the decision by the council (although understandable given their revenue loss), to relinquish the lease has made that impossible. I will try my hardest to ensure that we act in the best interests of the village and people that want to come into the village for a short stay, by improving the flow of the short stay car park.
Kind Regards, Ian Cooper