Cars overstay welcome

Press, 4 June 1988, Page 9

Cars overstay welcome

Countdown Foodmarkets, Ltd, is waging war against "all-day parking” at its suburban stores. An increasing number of motorists, have been using the company’s foodmarket car-park to leave their cars while they travel on into the inner city by bus. The general manager, Mr Mike Prendergast, said city shoppers were parking their cars to avoid using parking meters or paying fines. “It is particularly bad in Sydenham, where we have just extended our car-park to cater for customers,” he said. The company began to erect signs yesterday in its out-of-town car-parks reminding people that the free parking space is for customers. “Although we have the

right to tow cars away, we do not want to take this action as it could inconvenience a mother with her children,” Mr Prendergast said. Nor did the company want to resort to placing i signs threatening drivers that their cars would be towed away. “We feel people should be fair and not use our Countdown car-parks for all-day parking,” he said. Mr Prendergast said Countdown objected to in effect subsidising innercity businesses by providing all-day parking for their customers.

“We feel city businesses should take action so as to encourage people to take their cars into town. A first step would be to get the City Council to reduce parking meter fees and fines,” he said.