New parking/cost structure form Dimensions and Fenton Manor - Starting June 1st

Thanks to Nigel Howle from 6 Towns Radio (Tues/Thursday 1pm-3pm) for this info into an investigation he started some time ago now, and invited me onto his radio show to discuss.

At that time I explained that as a parent taking my 3 kids to swimming, I'd be incurring a possible £150 a year extra costs. On top of the fact I was paying more than the gym members each year (even with two children) so I argued that why hadn't swimming been taken into account.

Also on the show was Cllr Hazel Lyth who admitted that they'd not even considered the swimming lessons (a good chunck of revenue comes from swimming lessons and they'd not even considered it!)

The council's plan is to let Gym members have parking for free and everyone else had to pay a pound for 3 hours of parking, most using just the hour (notice there are no smaller parking ranges here for 0-1 hours, 1 to 2hours).

Nigel also raised a good point

The council have missed the point that children's swimming lessons are essential for parents while going to the gym occurs if you have a disposable income to do it!

Sadly the council have set the wheels in motion for this to happen, so all of those parents who do pay for lessons, your custom is very much unappreciated.

Information from the council....

The new charges for car parking which the Council has agreed to introduce at both Dimensions Leisure Centre and Fenton Manor Sports Complex from 01 June 2011 have taken into account the needs of regular visitors as follows:

1) Shapes Health and Leisure Club Members (at Fenton Manor Sports Complex) and Dynamics Health and Leisure Club Members (at Dimensions Leisure Centre) already pay a significant monthly membership fee, due to this it has been agreed that they will be provided with a parking permit as part of their membership package within the existing charge.

2) All other users (including regular visitors such as parents whose children enrol on swimming lessons) have a number of options, they can:

* Pay and display - i.e. pay £1 (for up to 3 hours) per visit to park by purchasing a ticket on arrival. Should customers wish to stay over 3 hours the fee is £4 for all day - our data suggests that this higher charge will generally only effect those attending events.

* Purchase an annual parking permit for the facility which will cost £37.50 (costing the equivalent to 72p per week), for customers who visit once a week throughout the year or more than once a week this is a significant saving on the standard pay and display fee.

* Purchase a six monthly parking permit for the facility which will cost £22.50 (costing the equivalent to 87p per week), for customers who visit once a week throughout the six month period or more than once a week this is a significant saving on the standard pay and display fee.

* Purchase a three monthly parking permit for the facility which will cost £15.40 (costing the equivalent to 1.18p per week), for customers who visit more than once a week throughout the three months this is a significant saving on the standard pay and display fee.

Nigel's next show is on 6 Towns Radio this Thursday at 1:00pm