Falmouth BID launches FREE car parking



Richard Wilcox Falmouth BID Manager



In what will be a first for Falmouth, the Falmouth BID is launching the FEBRUARY IS FREE! car parking scheme, enabling shoppers to enjoy all the town has to offer – its high quality independent shops and national retail businesses, food and drink outlets and visitor attractions – by ensuring that two of Falmouth’s largest car parks The Dell and The Quarry, will be FREE to all who visit on Wednesdays during the month of February 2012. 



The FEBRUARY IS FREE! car parking scheme, one of over 20 projects and schemes kick-started by the Falmouth BID since it was voted in by Falmouth businesses only two years ago, responds directly to feedback from businesses and local people who identify the cost of car parking as a key component in the shoppers’ decision making process. The Falmouth BID has responded to this by liaising with Cornwall Council to spearhead an innovative scheme that will make it even more attractive for people from across Cornwall to‘re-discover’ Falmouth.  

Thanks to the Falmouth BID –

• ALL shoppers who visit Falmouth on ANY of the Wednesdays of the 1^st, 8^th 15^th, 22^nd & 29^th  February and choose to park their car at either The Dell or The Quarry car park can do so for FREE for that 24hr period
• YOU WILL NOT NEED to press any buttons on the ticket machine to get a ticket NOR will you need to display any tickets within your vehicle
• Simply park your car in the highlighted car parks, any time night or day on the dates shown in February and enjoy all that Falmouth has to offer!   

Richard Wilcox, the Falmouth BID Manager said:

“We have to be as competitive and innovative as we possibly can be in order to make our town centre as attractive a proposition as possible for would be shoppers, whether they are coming from Camborne or Cardiff. The cost of car parking is one of the more emotive issues and one that the Falmouth BID highlighted in our High Street Five Point Plan – a campaign that has attracted national attention and indeed recognition in the recently unveiled Mary Portas review of the high street. We as BID have been liaising with Cornwall Council, lobbying on behalf of our BID levy paying businesses to encourage a private sector viewpoint on pricing and policy for 2012 and alongside these meetings, I have been looking at various practical solutions to help support town businesses. By making FREE, car parking in the Dell and Quarry car parks on Wednesdays throughout February, we are doing just that. In such challenging economic times the more the BID works with the businesses in the town to make Falmouth even more appealing for a day visit or longer the better. ”

Guy Thomas, Cornwall Council Town Centre Management Specialist said:

”It is a very positive and encouraging step forward to see a partnership like this between Cornwall Council and Falmouth Business Improvement District.  As a Town Centre Manager, I am acutely aware of the intrinsic link between car park provision and the impact it has upon a town centre. At a time when the collective high street needs as much support as it can get, this scheme is a real example of how Cornwall Council is keen to work with its partners to deliver solutions on the ground, and I hope this is a project which can be developed further in the future.”