Free parking in Darlington - trying to hold back the tide?

For years a vocal group of Darlington people have called on our Labour controlled council to give away parking for free in the town.

And for years the council has been firm in its stance that this measure would not be in the best interest in of the town but, with local elections less than a year away, senior councillors have panicked and dipped into their shrinking budget to subsidise car parking.

To put forward a position opposing this measure will not be wildly popular but decision making is always best when there are groups prepared to stand up and challenge. Having people who look at assumptions twice before proceeding is good for democracy.

Our high street has always changed and anyone wishing to turn the clock back twenty or thirty years will be sadly disappointed. Tax 'efficient' Amazon and shopping via smart phone have disrupted the old retail model to such an extent that bricks and mortar retail chains are on the edge of viability. The multinational retailers long ago decided that huge retail parks that drew customers from a large area was the only way to create the efficiency of cost that would keep them going.

Sadly our Council have made a basic mistake, a mistake that I have seen other managers of legacy businesses fall for. They have chosen to fight the opposition on their ground, trying to compete where the council is weakest and retail parks are strongest. By promoting two hours of free parking reinforces the fact that parking charges exist. Retail parks can offer free parking twenty-four hours a day all year round.

If this decision was forced on the council by M&S closing, what sort of panic would Binns’ demise cause? Four hours free parking? If another big name were to go, what next? The evolution of retail will not be stopped by a race to the bottom in parking costs. Remember, a round trip to Teesside Park cost £12, according to the AA, so it is not transport costs that make people decide.

Managing the change to a new healthy and vibrant town centre will not be easy and it will not be cheap. By giving away parking the council is deliberately cutting their income and reducing the amount of money available to spend on the town.

Instead, the council should be concentrating on winning where retail parks are weak. Our unique sense of place and history, a place to meet friends and be entertained, a range of one off shops and special events. The recent food festival was a prime example of this. It was a great success and the organisers are to be warmly awarded for their hard work.

A great change for our new town centre would include changes to planning to allow people to live in the empty spaces above shops, creating a new community in the heart of our town. Also more work needs to be done to make active travel into and out of town easier, quicker and safer.

This council needs to stop acting like King Cnut, trying to stem the tide of change, and instead fight to our strengths and plan for a new future in our town centre.

Matthew Snedker

Coordinator, Darlington Green Party

When Darlington’s Labour controlled council revealed their plans for 10,000 new build houses, the reactions of most people were of equal parts horror and dismay.

Horror from the knowledge that this rash of building would forever change the nature of our town while covering much needed green space.

The feelings of dismay I hear are just as strong. People know that, whatever the promises of ‘consultation’ our current crop of Labour councillors are so entrenched that they feel safe in ploughing ahead with their master plan.

The figures conjured up to support this excess of building piles supposition on top of wishful thinking.

Darlington residents will be aware that Westminster is putting pressure on local authorities to build more homes. Even with this urgency, the directive from Central Government is that Darlington Borough Council need only find room to house 150 extra people each year. However this plan is hell bent on adding 30,000 more people to the town.

Even before a single foundation is dug, Darlington’s housing market is not in the best of health. We are already feeling the chilling effects of house price deflation. While affordability of housing needs addressing at a national level, the uncontrolled price crash this council risks is not going to be in anyone’s best interests.

The other signs of a sickening local housing market can be seen in empty homes. Darlington’s ‘void rate’ is above average for owner occupied, private rent and social rent properties.

Further holes in the Council’s arguments can be seen in their claims that new employment will drive housing need. Their claims seem overly optimistic, especially as the assumption is that people will relocate for zero hour contract, minimum wage jobs.

However, to get a full understanding of the madness this proposal threatens to unleash on the area you need to look at the housing proposals for the Tees Valley as a whole. Individually, all authorities are predicting significant numbers of people will move into their area. They wish us to believe that as we crash out of the EU the Tees Valley is to become a hot spot for migration never witnessed before. To be frank, the regional population predictions just don’t stack up.

The figures on which this plan is built are decidedly shaky but of course the real driver behind the scenes is a council desperate for money. Of course this is largely due to the Conservative Government’s ruthless cuts to all areas of public spending causing turmoil in all councils. If this desperation is obvious to us, then it is as clear as day to developers. They know that they hold the whip hand here and will build the houses they want, where they want and when they want. Disquiet over recent planning decisions already shows a process that is out of control, yet effective opposition from within the Council chamber is in short supply.

People who care about the future of Darlington have only one chance to call a halt to these plans. They must take the opportunity of the May 2019 local elections to break Labour’s grip on power before irreversible damage is done to our town. A Green Party presence on the Borough Council would hold the council to account on all decisions, week in week out.

Matthew Snedker
Coordinator, Darlington Green Party