BOLTON Council has launched the great town centre car parking debate ... and now town hall chiefs want to hear your opinions. Fed up with moans that they have got it wrong and motorists vowing never to shop in Bolton again, they are now having a major re-think. The massive Trafford Centre shopping centre opens at Dumplington at Christmas 1998 with thousands of free spaces. The Bolton and Bury Chamber of Commerce has already warned that Bolton could become "shutter city" unless the council changes its "suicidal car parking charges".

Council chiefs believe that a bustling town centre such as Bolton will be able to offer a different shopping experience to the faceless, indoor shopping malls of an out-of-town centre.

Nevertheless, the aim in the next two years is to make Bolton such an attractive and unique shopping centre that its future is secured.

A town centre manager is soon to be appointed and a major marketing strategy has been launched. Now the thorny problem of car parking is being tackled.

There will be NO free parking, but shoppers will be given priority over office workers for spaces in the heart of the town centre.

All the major car parks in the town centre will be aimed at the short-stay market, with office workers using cheap long-stay car parks just outside. The Bow Street and All Saints Street car parks would be changed to short-stay, with a charge of around £5 for all-day parking to discourage office workers.

Council chiefs have come under constant fire in the last couple of years over parking.

First, there were the charges brought in for the last remaining on-street places in the town centre. Then the prices went up in the car parks and then there was more criticism when charges were introduced on Sundays.

While the council has not yet come to a firm decision on the scale of charges, they are unlikely to budge on the question of whether they should charge at all.

The council collects £1.7 million a year from car parking fees. Of this, £1.2 million goes back into the running of them and providing such things as security lighting and cameras. The other £500,000 is used for road repairs, street cleaning and road improvement schemes.

If the council was to scrap charges, this money would have to come from elsewhere and with the local authority facing cuts of £5.1 million this year, town hall chiefs argue that services would suffer.

In addition, the council is competing with private operators which run car parks such as those at The Octagon, The Market Place and Crompton Place.

They would not be able to provide the top quality car parks they do without them being commercially viable and the council is also hoping to attract other operators to build new car parks.

The other argument against free parking is that early-bird office workers would take up all the best places first thing in the morning and there would be none left for shoppers. All the other Greater Manchester towns charge for parking and council chiefs thought they had their prices about right in comparison ... until Dumplington.

Mr Ray Jefferson, director of planning and engineering services, explained: "The Dumplington decision changed the whole equation.

"We felt that we were in a position to compete with any shopping centre in the region.

"All councils were focusing on trying to keep traffic out the town centre and encouraging public transport ... but then Dumplington was given the go ahead."

Bolton has 11,242 car parking spaces which cover a third of the floorspace in the town centre. But almost 4,000 of these are for private firms and not available for public use.

The council has always encouraged new firms to provide their own spaces, but in future they will be looking more towards encouraging firms to come up with the cash to provide more public spaces.

Planning chiefs have a delicate balance to achieve in drawing up their policy ... how can they make sure there are always reasonably-priced spaces for shoppers in safe car parks close to the shops, but at the same time keep town centre businesses happy?

They want the public to contact them to give their reaction to the proposals. Their report also puts forward other posers which will provoke strong reaction.

Should the council increase charges above the rate of inflation for motorists who park for more than three hours?

Should the period for on-street parking be increased from 40 minutes?

Should the disabled have to pay for parking in "off-street" car parks like everyone else?

Should private operators be required to surface and put lighting on their car parks like the council ones do?

Should the council take the lead and persuade its own employees to travel to work by public transport and should other employees do the same?

Should there be more park and ride schemes to encourage motorists to leave their cars awy from the town centre? Anyone who wants to send in their opinion, should write to Tony Watts, Policy and Transport Planning Section, planning and Engineering Services, Town Hall, Bolton, BL1 1RU.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.