Malvern Hills District Council (MHDC) propose to increase short-stay car parking charges from 60p per hour to 90p per hour, with a 10p reduction on long-stay car parks. The idea is to alleviate the strain on short-stay spaces by encouraging shoppers to park in cheaper long-stay car parks. However, the reality is that local shoppers will not make that move because of the geography of our hillside town. Great Malvern’s long-stay car parks are at the bottom of the town, and require a steep trek of around 5 minutes to get to the top of town. Few fit shoppers use the long-stay car parks for this very reason, let alone any with mobility issues, or parents with small children, and a price difference of 40p is not going to persuade them to do otherwise. Instead as local traders we believe shoppers will either be pushed onto the already over-crowded on-street parking (which is bordering on dangerous at present) or more likely will abandon the town centre all together for the out-of-town retail park where they can park for free.

We ask that you sign our petition for MHDC to halt with the increase in parking charges and so not put additional costs on both local traders and those who support them.

The Great Malvern Association of Traders