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T<\/span>he shop windows are decked out in their festive finery, there are carols on the stereos and the tills are ringing. The independent stores, cafes and restaurants lining Hill Road in the Somerset seaside town of Clevedon are hoping to take advantage of the crucial pre-Christmas period.<\/p>\n The street\u2019s colourful shops, along with the town\u2019s Victorian pier, are among Clevedon\u2019s best-known landmarks, making Hill Road popular with locals and visitors. It even stood in for the high street in the ITV drama Broadchurch.<\/p>\n However, Hill Road\u2019s traders are looking ahead to the new year with concern after proposals by North Somerset council to introduce car parking charges on local streets.<\/p>\n They fear customers will be deterred if they have to pay to park, which could reduce footfall, hit trade and even threaten their livelihoods.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re greater than the sum of our parts. People come here as a destination. It\u2019s the eclectic mix of independents, it\u2019s the community,\u201d says Sandy Prater, the owner of Fizz gallery, which has recently celebrated its 20th anniversary on Hill Road.<\/p>\n <\/span>Sandy Prater, owner of the Fizz art gallery.<\/span> Photograph: Adrian Sherratt\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Surrounded by paintings of Bristol\u2019s famous Clifton suspension bridge and displays of ornaments, Prater says the council\u2019s introduction of parking charges in neighbouring Nailsea in the summer has already had a worrying impact on local businesses.<\/p>\n Amid a backdrop of rising costs, consumers reining in their spending and an uncertain economic environment, the traders fear parking fees could be the final straw for some. They are calling on the local authority to reconsider and recently handed in a petition against the proposed charges signed by more than 3,300 people.<\/p>\n Prater adds: \u201cResearch shows that when people have to pay, they don\u2019t come as often. We\u2019ve seen it decimate towns and small areas of independents up and down the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, it is a scene being played out across Britain: North Somerset is just one of the country\u2019s cash-strapped councils that has looked to introduce or increase parking charges in a bid to boost its income. It\u2019s a trend that has been greeted with dismay by traders from St Albans to Surrey and Shropshire.<\/p>\n Clevedon shoppers can currently park for free on Hill Road and other surrounding streets for two hours. The parking restrictions apply between 8am and 6pm from Monday to Saturday.<\/p>\n The council is proposing giving drivers 30 minutes of free parking, before charging \u00a31.50 for a one-hour stay, \u00a32.50 for two hours and \u00a33 for the maximum three-hour stay. The charges would be in operation from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.<\/p>\n Prater fears even nominal fees could deter visitors: \u201cThose popping in on the way home or on the way through just to grab a pint of milk, a birthday card, you would be amazed at how many times that turns into the sale of something quite significant,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n \u201cThose people are not going to add parking charges to that \u00a32.50 card or \u00a31.50 bottle of milk.\u201d<\/p>\n The sloping terrain around Hill Road \u2013 the clue is in the name \u2013 means there isn\u2019t space for a car park, requiring visitors to park on the street. On the day the Guardian visited, almost all the spaces were taken, which the traders insist highlights the street\u2019s popularity.<\/p>\n <\/span>Devvon Wilsher-Day, bridal shop owner.<\/span> Photograph: Adrian Sherratt\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The current parking rules suit the brides-to-be who visit Devvon Wilsher-Day\u2019s shop So Gorgeous Bridal to try on wedding dresses.<\/p>\n \u201cCustomers come for two-hour appointments, so it works fantastically for us at the moment, because of the two hours free parking,\u201d she says, sitting next to racks of lace and satin creations.<\/p>\n Wilsher-Day acknowledges her customers might be willing to pay for parking, but calls the council\u2019s plans \u201cshortsighted\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf people are coming to Clevedon and spending money in the shops here and local residents run the shops and spend money back in the economy, it\u2019s a wonderful thing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Wilsher-Day and her mother moved their shop to Clevedon just 18 months ago after years based in a suburb of nearby Weston-super-Mare, where they believe the introduction of parking charges contributed to the decline of the local high street.<\/p>\n North Somerset first set out its parking proposals in 2024, saying it would apply a consistent approach to on-street parking, council-owned car parks and other land it owns.<\/p>\n It said one of its goals was to create \u201cwell-managed and well-maintained parking facilities\u201d that \u201csupport local economies\u201d while responding to the challenges of the climate crisis and fostering healthy communities.<\/p>\n It also announced its ambitions for \u201cparking that is self-funding where possible or which creates surplus for the council\u201d to be invested back into parking and transport.<\/p>\n Local authorities introducing parking charges often refer to earlier research suggesting that having to pay to park does not have a negative effect on town centre footfall, while \u201cfree\u201d parking is typically covered by taxpayers when the local authority has to pay for the upkeep of spaces and enforcement of the regulations.<\/p>\n However, the Hill Road traders are not persuaded by this, says David Sims, who owns the independent bookshop Books on the Hill. \u201cIf you look at the places where they\u2019ve done those studies, they\u2019re not here. They haven\u2019t got characteristics like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Sims and others worry customers will drive instead to the large Cribbs Causeway out-of-town shopping centre and retail park about 15 miles up the road, where parking is free, or shop online.<\/p>\n The council, run by a coalition of Liberal Democrats and independents, has not yet approved the parking charge proposals, nor set a date for their introduction.<\/p>\n However, it may face a legal challenge from among its own ranks, according to the Conservative councillor Chris Blades, who sits on North Somerset council and also chairs Clevedon town council.<\/p>\n <\/span>The chair of Clevedon town council, Chris Blades.<\/span> Photograph: Adrian Sherratt\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cAlong with the business improvement district we have got solicitors involved,\u201d he says. \u201cThe town council is vehemently opposed.\u201d<\/p>\n Some locals say North Somerset council has form. It spent about \u00a31.5m to install \u2013 and subsequently remove \u2013 controversial \u201cwiggly\u201d road markings in Clevedon, which was labelled a \u201cbizarre road scheme\u201d by the RAC motoring organisation.<\/p>\n However, not everyone is opposed to the council\u2019s plans. One resident, Paul Hitchcock, says: \u201cAs long as it\u2019s brought in carefully, I think it\u2019s inevitable. Part of me thinks it would stop the parking spaces from being blocked all day.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for North Somerset council said the introduction of parking charges had been \u201csubject to extensive engagement with the public\u201d and it had considered \u201call views given\u201d, resulting in a lower tariff being proposed for Hill Road than elsewhere.<\/p>\n They added: \u201cIn Nailsea, we have sold over 36,000 tickets since introducing charges and ticket data shows a month-on-month increase in car park use during that time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The shop windows are decked out in their festive finery, there are carols on the stereos and the tills are ringing. The independent stores, cafes and restaurants lining Hill Road in the Somerset seaside town of Clevedon are hoping to take advantage of the crucial pre-Christmas period. The street\u2019s colourful shops, along with the town\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[1607,5313,17176,1545,21202,12034,2226,4603,3148,1809,1116],"class_list":{"0":"post-38902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-areas","9":"tag-charges","10":"tag-decimate","11":"tag-industry","12":"tag-oppose","13":"tag-parking","14":"tag-retail","15":"tag-somerset","16":"tag-towns","17":"tag-traders","18":"tag-weve"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}