Where should all the cars go ?

Businesses who need customers to visit them in person always do better if there is convenient and preferably free car parking nearby. Look at the impact that out of town shopping centres have had on high streets. Closer to home, rural business parks are popular with tenants because they usually have ample space for vehicles.

It's a very different story for businesses operating in Chew Magna. Our members there regularly raise the issue of parking, which becomes a bigger problem as every year goes by. There are more cars on the road and things aren’t helped, for example, by people who park for the day in the main car park before travelling into Bristol by bus or by large walking groups who take up a number of spaces when they use the village as their starting point for their trek

We want people to enjoy our local area, but as a Chamber of Commerce, focussed on the interests of our members, we have highlighted this topic over the years and we have considered different approaches. With a limited number of spaces, we have talked about the potential of greater enforcement of a two-hour waiting limit, but that comes with greater staff costs.

We have also pondered whether it is possible to identify somewhere suitable, slightly out of the village centre. which could be used by people who work in Chew Magna, thus freeing up the maximum number of spaces for customers.

There is no easy solution, but I hope we can start a constructive debate which might find a way to improve matters. One thing is for sure, if we do nothing about it, customers will go elsewhere, businesses will struggle to keep going and our whole community will be the worse for it.