Turn the spare land into cheap car parks

WE need someone with the wisdom of Solomon to sort out the car-parking mess in Worthing.

There are several different issues which are conspiring to persuade people it's better (and cheaper) to go shopping almost anywhere other than Worthing town centre.

And that's just plain crazy when town centre shopkeepers need to get a huge footfall through their doors to help pay the massive rent and business tax bills which never stop dropping through letterboxes.

It was bad enough when Worthing Council opted out of running its own car parks and handed over the job to National Car Parks.

The multis have since had a coat of paint and improved lighting, but the charges for car parking have gone through the roof and if letters to the Herald and other newspapers are anything to go by, motorists are voting with the car wheels and parking elsewhere.

That "elsewhere" has included many places where it is illegal (and dangerous) to park and as a result a new policing regime has caught erring motorists in their hundreds since its introduction last month.

It may have brought in an impressive amount of cash from fines but it's also brought a huge level of frustration among motorists who have been caught.

I've no sympathy for them because they have been getting away with parking irresponsibly for years, and if some of them are now being hit in their pockets and forced to park legally, so well and good.

But there is a down-side, and that is that Worthing gets a reputation for having a big parking problem and ruthless enforcement.

The result of this is a further exodus of shoppers away from the town centre and nearby parades and into supermarket car parks and other towns like Rustington, Storrington and Littlehampton.

That may be good for them, but it's no good for Worthing if we see rows of empty shops in coming months.

We're coming up to the Christmas shopping rush now (like it or not) and if traders don't get good business in the lead up to Christmas, it's going to be a bleak new year for them.

We have many vacant building sites dotted about '“ the old police station site, Teville Gate, the old pub/club site at the corner of Chapel Road and Newland Road, which have been empty for years while the planners et al cogitate.

How about using the land as temporary car parks '“ without the exhorbitant charges?