Motorists will find extra parking in Newport town centre thanks to the expiry of an old lease.
10 additional long stay parking bays are now available in Medina Avenue car park, run by the Isle of Wight Council.
When the car park was built in 1994, Marks & Spencer provided funding for it. In return, Medina Borough Council leased back 10 bays for M&S staff. The duration of this lease was 25 years.
Councillor Ian Ward, Cabinet member for infrastructure and transport, explained:
“The lease expired on 31 March 2019.
“We indicated to M&S we were not keen to renew the lease and the company did not object.
“Consequently, we now have an additional ten long stay bays in Newport.”
What we need is off-street parking at a small fraction of what we pay at the moment. Newport in particular would benefit – economically and by easing congestion caused by people (like me) looking for free parking.
I agree with Keith Roberts..the parking fees always put me off trying to shop there.
More and more business’ will suffer due to parking payments and lack of parking, people will just order online more and more