Shout out to Steve Marshall, Strategy & Assets Engineer and Nicholas Smith, Senior Transport Engineer from Tamworth Regional Council for the great work they have done on drafting a revised Parking Strategy.

On Wednesday night Chamber’s Vice President Martin Howes was invited to be the voice of business at a workshop where the Draft Strategy was presented to councillors. With 20 years in retail shopping centre management, there is no question that Martin has the expertise to represent us in this discussion.

The draft strategy prompted a lot of discussion and it was great to see council giving serious consideration to the impact the strategy will have on the business community – especially the retail sector.

Chamber is very much in favour of the revised parking strategy as it adopts best practice in parking management and will have a positive impact on the economy of the CBD and other commercial precincts. 

The biggest winners from the implementation of the strategy will be CBD workers, with the addition of over 200 free all day parking spaces which will free up parking spaces in more premium locations for customers of retail and commercial businesses.

No doubt there will be claims about revenue raising and that short-term parking will be detrimental to business but it’s important that you don’t get distracted by the noise. There is genuine science behind a good parking strategy and we need active turnover of customers to drive retail performance.

That said, if / when the strategy is implemented, Chamber is happy to hear from local businesses if they believe their business has been impacted.

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Yours in Business,

Martin Howes

Tamworth Business Chamber Vice President

Centre Manager, Centrepoint Tamworth