A leading businessman today called on Trafford Council to abolish all parking charges in Altrincham, saying they were the “single biggest factor” stopping the revival of the town centre.
Lawrence Jones MBE, who lives in Hale Barns, is the founder and CEO of Manchester-based hosting company UKFast and was last month listed on the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated personal fortune of £247m.
Although hopes are high that investment in various regeneration schemes in the town centre will lead to its rejuvenation, many areas continue to be blighted by empty units and ‘to let’ boards.
And Jones, 46, said that while the high street is changing “for every town”, the council has not done enough to help businesses in the town centre compete with the Trafford Centre.
Below: Lawrence Jones outside Hale Grill today
He told Altrincham Today: “If there’s a risk of getting a parking ticket in Altrincham, why would you ever want go shopping there when there’s no risk with parking at the Trafford Centre? People are actually driving further away just for the convenience. Coming here today, the biggest concern I’ve got was the parking.
“The other day I was going to a restaurant, The Garden, to have breakfast, but [the parking charges] just meant I had to cut it short and I spent less in that restaurant than I would normally have spent.
“There’s this incessant desire for councils to charge people money and try and penalise people for parking, because they can as they’re the landowners.”
Parking charges in Altrincham are some of the lowest in the country, with an hour costing just 10p and two hours 30p.
But Jones said: “It’s a false economy and it’s killing the community. I’d rather pay more business tax and business rates and have free parking for everybody and ban parking charges for the whole of the UK. Watch the economy fly.”
Business rates are another source of controversy in Altrincham, with some failed businesses blaming the high rates and rent in the town centre.
Below: Jones playing chess with Richard Branson on Necker island
Jones, however, believes that lifting parking charges would have more of a tangible effect in encouraging shoppers to return.
He added: “Rates are all doable if you’ve got customers – you’ve got to look at what’s stopping the customers coming in.
“That’s the single biggest inhibiting factor that will stop anybody from parking or going shopping in one of these small towns. Even if you park legally, you can still come back to a ticket because somebody says you were four inches over the line, or you weren’t straight.
“We’ve all had parking tickets and we’ve all been affected by it, and that influences how you shop in these small places. Genuinely, I wouldn’t even know what shops there are available in Altrincham now. I think it’s going to struggle – you need the mindset change from the council.”
Jones was earlier speaking to a invited audience of entrepreneurs at Hale Grill, hosted by Alexander Knight Accountants, during which he recounted tales of his friendship with Richard Branson, his near-death experience in an avalanche in 2001 and the lessons he had learned while building UKFast into the £29m-turnover company it is today. He was awarded an MBE for services to the digital economy in the 2015 New Year’s Honours List.
On the subject of his appearance on the Rich List – seven places above David and Victoria Beckham – he said: “The Rich List is just infuriating because there can only be one place on it and that’s the number one, so now I’m really annoyed! I was actually on holiday with my wife and I didn’t even know that they were going to print our name, but we have to be realistic. This isn’t real money, it’s all a game and none of it really matters.
“I’m also mindful of ‘here today, gone tomorrow’, so I’m definitely not taking any of it for granted and actually it’s not really changed what our view of success is. Success is being able to spend time with your kids, and being able to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, with who you want to do it. That’s what success is.”
