Gedling Borough Council is to suspend all car parking charges with immediate effect as part of its ongoing strategy to maintain critical services and reduce the risk of Coronavirus spreading.
The council, last week, announced that car parks near play areas and parks would be closed except to Blue Badge holders and a decision has now been made to suspend any car parking fees in the council’s town centre car parks to free up staff to work on maintaining the council’s critical services.
The suspension of all car parking charges will help reduce the risk to staff who are employed to manage council car parks and parking enforcement. It will also give residents more time to park when travelling for essential shopping as shops and supermarkets are rightly implementing social distancing techniques to protect staff and customers. It also reduces the risk of infection by stopping people from having to obtain a ticket from the machines at car parks.
Government advice is clear that residents should only travel when absolutely necessary and only for essential shopping visits whilst complying with social distancing measures.
Leader of Gedling Borough Council, Councillor John Clarke said: “As people continue to follow the government’s guidelines and stay at home to protect our NHS and save lives, we are continually looking at ways to reduce the risk to our staff and make it easier for residents to park when travelling for essential shopping and for them to not have to worry about touching parking machines. We would normally offer two hours free parking so, for the time being, people can park for longer without having to display a ticket.”
