The council has decided parking charges at Seaton will now be all year round instead of just the summer. Greedy buggers.

Thats to stop people going down there for a warm,lol

or really just stops people. its not exactly brighton or blackpool off season is it or the extra money they get being put back into the place.

The charges apply between 9am to 6pm so I go early doors with the dog but with charges coming in over the winter it’ll be dark so no Seaton from now on.
It’ll be the Headland next….. don’t they realise they’re killing off trade in these places.

exactly, but they are bloody amateurs getting paid for their decisions. do not bother with seaton nowadays apart from a quick walk round seaton park on my way home from a match to give the dogs a pee. its either headland or the blue lagoon depending on the time i have and the weather when coming up. it will be some green agenda to save seaton by wanting everyone to use the non existant regular bus services. it aint the 1950,s in summer with the long queues in the bus station to get back home. a few smaller towns have actually taken parking charges away and its odd how these are the ones thats flourishing. as jim davidson once said when the yarmouth council was telling him to do this and cannot do that when he bought the brittania pier there, i,m not having the local postman telling me how to run my business. i do not tell him how to deliver letters.

Bus services now are a joke, never been the same since the council sold out, but they don’t get much of a choice, look what happened in Darlington.
The new additions to the fleet are 56 reg Darts from Rotherham with a new coat of paint

As far as I aware monies collected from Parking Fees cannot go directly into the Council coffers, it’s supposed to be used to improve the infrastructure, roads etc.
The Council has ring fenced the town centre with parking meters, for me a disgrace as they are using the fees as a cash cow. I believe the fee for a Parking Permit to park outside your house has been doubled to £10, if some one comes to visit you you need another permit which I think is around £30.

Manchester have just brought their buses back under the control of the local authority, would it work in Hartlepool and surrounding towns ?

Bit like Road Tax, I thought it was to build and maintain existing roads but that's a load of b*ll*cks

Yes i noticed these charges at Seaton on October 1st when i went there to enjoy my first free park of the winter and a coffee from the "frothy coffee woman" in the horse box.
They are only driving people away from Seaton and the businesses will suffer.
I doubt also that the income will offset the costs of collection.
The Church Street area is the same too with hundreds of yards of streets with meters totally devoid of parked cars. Yet the shopping centre has 3 hours free?
Total bollocks.

What stupid sods dream things up like this. Its only the people that are local to the area that go to Seaton and the like in closed season. Why don't the local businesses kick up a right stink over this.

When this was first proposed several years ago, the money was going to be spent on improvements whatever.

used to knock the council run bus companies when i worked for them as being quite wasteful in the employment of non revenue earning staff. usually top heavy but passengers didn,t no or care because they had a bus servive from 5 till midnight. now its just a profit making thing where customers as they call em now are secondary to the profits. suppose hartlepool will be a stagecoach dumping ground for the old nails. should dump these in the midlands where the mechanics earn over 6 quid an hour more.

I think one of the worst aspect of charging for parking is at Hospitals, Health Centres etc

Go to to the general and it’s 20 mins free, but it’s camera controlled so you only do have 20 minutes….., I went for a blood sample and just made it, no way am I paying £4.

ours is the same then goes up in 2 pounds for every extra hour you are in. if they could manage to see you at the appointed time they,d save you some money as the wait you have is far longer than the time they use to see you. do not tell me its because they are busy. a 8.30 appointment is fine if the specialist arrived then and not 40 minutes later with his coat on where it was obvious he was late.

Our lass drops me off (well she slows down) now and picks me up, don’t mind paying a parking charge but £4 to start is Highway robbery to me.

I've been visiting North Tees a lot in the last fortnight. After I drop of other visitors at the entrance I park in a nearby street, and walk about a quarter of a mile back to the entrance. It's good exercise for me and saves me £4 on each visit.

Whilst expensive it wouldn’t be so bad if the money went to the NHS but they sold the car parks of, now run by a private company, even employees at the hospital have to pay, it’s deducted from their monthly salary.

When i worked for the NHS the car parks were owned by the NHS and the private companies managed them on behalf of the hospital and took a cut.
It was very lucrative for the hospital trusts and was supposed to be directed into patient care but in reality it was never really ringfenced and is now just a part of their income baseline.
To give it up now would mean real cuts to other hospital services.
I presume its the same now.

we,d all walk out straight off if that happened where we worked and rightly so. its not as if out patiants and even visitors to see patiants go there for fun and games but out of necessity. we have a private hospital nearby where if you are lucky you are sent. guess what no parking charges there.

Really you have to go back to who decided to incorporate this into the income baseline, because it affects users and providers of the service .
I don’t mind paying a charge, but it’s outrageous to start off at £4 though to be fair.

Yes i agree the level of £4 is too high and for me feels like a charge or tax for using the NHS which is supposed to be free at the point of delivery.

How long before the council brings in a congestion charge, or make it a clean air zone ?

in 20 years time there will be no need for congestion charges anywhere. there will be so few cars on the road by then when you see one it will be an event.

No one will be able to afford a car, same as these other worldly clowns suggesting you get an heat pump with a 5 k grant……unfortunately they cost £20 k plus, do the maths.

How many of us would be put on their backsides if we turned into a bicycle nation.?i've had several close encounters with them in Amsterdam,they coming flying at you from all angles..and all them bells going off.

well you will not hear a bell or anything else in this country. the whispering death will be on you before you realise. anyway you,ll have nothing to fear as there will be covid type restrictions brought in when you can only walk at certain times of the day and any interferance with a cyclist will impose a fine and 3 strikes and you are jailed. a new pressure group will be set up, RLM, raleigh lives matter.

Doesn’t the free period run from November 1st to March31st?

It used to, you are correct, but now it’s all year round……the wife went out with her mates yesterday and called in a place in Seaton which was usually busy but they were the only ones in. Cause and effect…. Mind you the weren’t many cars about, usually it’s busier in the winter but not this time.