We have recently returned from a holiday in the Yorkshire Dales, a National Park, and as we live in Hawkshead took particular note of car parking charges.
People in the surrounding villages and hamlets of Hawkshead have to pay £3.30 to visit the village to pick up newspapers, shopping, collect a prescription or visit the doctor - even on a Sunday to go to church.
Parking away from the main car park is very restricted and often illegally used by visitors.
The market towns in the Dales had a charge of 50p for half an hour - time to pop into the shops. In some car parks it was as little as £2.50 for two hours and very little extra for a full day.
Hawkshead Car Park belongs to the Lake District National Park Authority. When will they realise these extortionate charges are killing the villages in the Lake District?
Businesses are failing through lack of visitors. Not many years ago traffic used to queue to get into the car parks, now there are many spaces even when it should be packed.
Perhaps the NPA should have a rethink and not be too greedy. Lower charges would create a faster turnover.
Then maybe the villages will not be accused of ‘grabbing money off the tourists’.
Jennifer Butterworth
Hawkshead
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