The only car park out of those which could be considered as a boost to parking spaces in Newbury is the Sainsbury car park although I will give you Bayer but only on a weekend.
The reason I include those places you regard as not boosting places, is that they have, in effect, changed the 'perimeter' of Newbury's retail sector. Also, the Retail Park would have taken a tremendous amount of car journeys out of the town.
In other words, shopping has changed since '68; especially late night shopping, which must have taken even more journeys out of town (where people choose to shop out of hours, during the week).
I understand though, cheaper parking does appear to increase foot-fall. Yet, millions of pounds of tax payers money has been spent giving a face lift to Newbury, but it is debatable if there has been a tangible improvement in shopper numbers.
The car park is a nightmare badly signed with turns that seem to not be access turns at all.
Agree with this. The car park isn't great. But then wasn't the car park made up by joining sections of the old car park together, or something like that?
Inside is a bright, brash, any other shopping centre in England with a noisy echoing clautstrophobic environment and a layout with slopes on the ground floor that are excessive.
Well, I can't argue with much of that, (apart from the claustrophobic bit, I always thought it was really quite airy) but then, that seems to be what most people want in a shopping centre, hence their popularity. I only visited Basingstoke once before Festival Place was built, in fact, they were in the process of building it then. I think (and I'm sure others will correct me here), that they joined several of the old shopping spaces together and renovated the whole lot, as well as building the main two-level shopping space. So this may be the reason that some of it feels a little disjointed. And I think the same applies to the car park, but I'm not 100% on any of that.
The day I visited was wet, and a school half term. The car park is a nightmare badly signed with turns that seem to not be access turns at all. Inside is a bright, brash, any other shopping centre in England with a noisy echoing clautstrophobic environment and a layout with slopes on the ground floor that are excessive. Did nothing for me other than make me wonder why I was there and to resolve that I didn't want to return. If I lived in Basingstoke, I might be inclined to study the layout to make the experience a bit more acceptable as it is in my opinion, the journey is not worth the effort.
Festival Place is an enclosed shopping centre, so the weather isn't an issue.
The slopes are there because that part of Basingstoke is on a hillside. I go to a shopping centre / mall to shop, not to be culturally, architecturally or otherwise stimulated. The choice of shops in Basingstoke is far better than that in Newbury. Hence its popularity.
Well, I can't argue with much of that, (apart from the claustrophobic bit, I always thought it was really quite airy) but then, that seems to be what most people want in a shopping centre, hence their popularity. I only visited Basingstoke once before Festival Place was built, in fact, they were in the process of building it then. I think (and I'm sure others will correct me here), that they joined several of the old shopping spaces together and renovated the whole lot, as well as building the main two-level shopping space. So this may be the reason that some of it feels a little disjointed. And I think the same applies to the car park, but I'm not 100% on any of that.
You are right. They demolished old bus station, cinema & square of shops immediately behind the bus station & this became the car park & new cinema area. The rest of the development is a facelift of what was there before. This was done be cladding the existing shops & car park frontage. The area leading up to the train station ( the R hand side if you will ) was newer than the area to the left of the sports centre, so this was left 'unclad' .
Greenham and the one where 'Holdfords' is. Not that it makes a blind bit of difference to the substantive point in my post, whether there are one or more parks.
Parking in Newbury is inadequate, overpriced and poorly managed.
In 1968, Newbury had 2,000 parking spaces. There are now currently just over 1400 spaces (some of them in obscure corners of the town). When Parkway opens, there will be another 600. In other words we will be returning to to 1968 levels.
That's not true is it, Sainsburys must have a few hundred, Waitrose a load more, Camp Hopson more and then there's the multi-storeys and the Wharf. I bet all that lot adds up to over 2000 and that's not including the Council car park and Bayer on a Saturday.
Greenham and the one where 'Holdfords' is. Not that it makes a blind bit of difference to the substantive point in my post, whether there are one or more parks.
Not exactly the largest range of shops then. Boots, Mothercare, Next, Argos, Staples, Halfords, Poundstretcher, 2 'sports' shops, Burger King, McDonalds, Currys, Homebase & an Arcadia Group outlet.
Not exactly the largest range of shops then. Boots, Mothercare, Next, Argos, Staples, Halfords, Poundstretcher, 2 'sports' shops, Burger King, McDonalds, Currys, Homebase & an Arcadia Group outlet.
Plus Tesco over the road! The point is, these places cover most requirements. It means a trip to the town centre is rarely required. Can you suggest what is missing from this list that is a 'must have' outlet - a pub I suppose? Don't forget you quoted a small passage from a broader text that described the Internet as another source.
Festival Place is an enclosed shopping centre, so the weather isn't an issue.
The weather was only an issue because the floor of the car park was wet throughout. I don't blame the operators for that, but what it did do was to make the tyres and suspension shudder every time a turn was made and also, because it was wet, it obscured the floor painted direction arrows so I spent as much time trying to work out which way to go as I did searching for a non existent parking space. The sign said 600 free spaces, took me ten minutes to find one.
Just to bring us back on track, let's hope that our new Parkway underground car park will be able to win over that of amazingstoke.
What I am looking forward to is Mrs B being able to return her allegiance to the M&S Food hall. Their quality foods I do miss although the wallet is a bit thicker since Sainsbury became second choice.
The way to make it cheaper like Brighton is adopt a zero tolerance approach to parking infringements. Do we really want this in Newbury though?
We did cover it in another thread but I don't think that was the conclusion we came to. As far as I am aware, there is a zero tolerance in Newbury.
An excerpt from the WBC website on its parking policy which, to my mind, demonstrates zero tolerance other than the required observation period being exceeded. Quote… The Civil Enforcement Officers carry a hand-held-computer-terminal to issue penalty charge notices. The software in the hand-held-computer prevents a penalty charge notice being issued until the required observation period for each particular parking contravention has elapsed. In cases where an instant penalty charge notice can be issued the Civil Enforcement Officer must also enter eight pieces of information (such as the number plate, tax disc details and the location) before a ticket can be issued, ensuring that the civil enforcement officer has to be on the scene and directly adjacent to the vehicle in order to complete the penalty charge notice. When the Civil Enforcement Officer issues a penalty charge notice, photographs of the alleged contravention may have been taken. These photographs will be used to consider the information presented in an appeal. However, the penalty charge notice will remain valid even if no photographs were taken And as a matter of interest, we will be able to see the statistics when WBC publish them Quote…. Transparency is demonstrated by the Council being required by the TMA 2004 to publish an annual report showing: (a) Its' parking policy; (b) The method of parking enforcement being used; (c) Statistics to show the number of penalty charge notices issued and the number subsequently cancelled; (d) How much income was received; and (e) If there was an operating surplus, how this was used to benefit the local community
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