'It's not fair!' Traders demand free parking as roadworks chaos cripples high street

Traders in the West Yorkshire town of Brighouse are campaigning for the council to lift parking charges until regeneration roadworks are complete.

It comes as shops have been forced to close due to a decline in trade, with many others struggling with the decline in footfall.

Brighouse Independent Shop Keepers (BRISK) have put together a petition asking for a minimum of 30 minutes free parking in the town centre to encourage more people to visit and spend time and money in the centre.

Parking charges in several parts of Brighouse were increased earlier this year, despite concerns from traders.

These rises came less than a year after some premium parking spaces in the town centre saw a 400 per cent increase - from 40p to £2 for an hour.

Work to revamp Brighouse town centre got underway in January and is scheduled to take 18 months, and should be complete by the end of summer 2027.

While most traders believe the scheme will benefit the town once it is complete, some say help is needed in the meantime.

Oliver Blackburn is the secretary of BRISK Secretary and Manager of Webster's Furniture, which has been run by his family since 1865.

He told GB News: "The roadworks started in January this year, which has impacted the town massively in terms of footfall, which is significantly reduced in trade. There are a lot of traders in the area that are struggling.

"We've managed to secure some extra parking spaces with the help of the councillors at Brighouse, which is good for long term but short term, traders need support and help and I think customers need that as well.

"We've set up a petition to campaign for a minimum of 30 minutes free parking, as quite a lot of shops and businesses had to cut staff down, and we've also had businesses that have closed or announced the closing in the last week or two, and some are also struggling, as well with the impacts of it [roadworks].

"So we just feel that we're trying to get a positive message, to get some free parking, to advertise and promote that to customers, to come into town and shop local and support the high street just to get us through these roadworks, because when it's all done, the town will look much better place."

Just over the road from Webster's furniture, Direct Carpet Co, a family run carpet store in Brighouse, is also feeling the pinch due to the roadworks outside their shop and the increased parking charges.

Wayne Smith, Owner Direct Carpet Co, said: "Trade has changed slightly since they've started doing the roadworks - there's not as much footfall but we're still trading. There has been an impact, especially with the parking charges going up.

"One minute it's 50p or 60p, the next minute it's £1.50, and that immediately changed when they started doing the roadworks. So I just feel like it has put a lot of people off coming into the town."

Work on the 18-month £19.1million regeneration scheme in Brighouse began in January, while parking charges in the town more than doubled earlier this year.

Some premium spaces in the town centre saw a 400 per cent increase - from 40p to £2 for an hour, and shoppers in Brighouse told GB News they welcome a price reduction.

Roy Fisher said: "It's excessive, you know, £1.50 for an hour and you're never sure if that's enough, so you finish up putting £3 on. I think it's is expensive and shouldn't be happening while they've got the roadworks on.

"You have no choice but to pay it around here. They should put the parking for it to be free until all these roadworks are finished."

Carl said: "The cost is too much at £2 an hour and if you go walk through the car parks, they're empty. Everybody just parks in the supermarket. It's a good thing that the council is now trying to sort this stupidity out."

Sharon Phelan said: "People are not coming into Brighouse anymore because they don't want to pay that money. Which I don't blame them, really. I mean, it's not fair. People can't afford to pay it and come and do all the shopping down here.

"Putting parking tickets up, it's not right- everybody's complaining about it."

Calderdale Council are mindful of the impact the works are having, but say the 18 month scheme will boost the high street.

The multimillion-pound redevelopment work in the town centre, funded by the government's Towns Fund, has also seen traffic flow in some areas changed, with some on-street parking spaces suspended as well as road closures introduced.

According to the Brighouse Town Deal Board, the aim of the project was to create "a more attractive, safer and cleaner town centre so those who shop, visit and enjoy spend longer, spend more and return often".

The Reform UK took over the former Labour led council in May, and have been working with local businesses since then, including freeing up more parking spaces to help.

Darren Commons, Cabinet Minister for Highways and Transport at Calderdale Council, told GB News: "It's a scheme that we inherited since we took over three months ago, and it will be a very good scheme when it's finished.

"However, there were some flaws in it, so we listened to the people and the shopkeepers business owners in Brighouse with pause phase two for a short while until we could review it, and we retained a lot of the car parking spaces that were going to be removed.

"It's a multi-million-pound investment, and it's going to be partially pedestrianised, the town centre. It's to reinvigorate the high street and draw more customers into Brighouse.

"It does serve a lot of the rural communities around here, but also enhance everything for the people who've already originally used it. It did start looking a bit tired, so this will help.

"We've inherited from the previous administration parking charges going up, and we've done a full review across the whole borough of Calderdale.

"We did take Brighouse out of it because of the works, but Brighouse reviews are going to happen over the next couple of weeks and there's hopefully some good news going forward.

"But we have been listening to traders and hence why we paused the scheme in the first place, and we're still listening and we'll see what we can do for them."

Wheels are in motion to review the parking charges within the next few weeks, and thousands of people have signed the petition for free parking so far.