Reopened Rainham Cafe says parking charges drives customers away

KentOnline / KMTV

The Cafe originally closed after rising wages and parking fees, saying that many preferred Hempstead Valley where parking is free.  Maisy Walker reports.

Transcript

00:00Tiktok Cafe in Raynham closed in May due to rising costs and reduced foot traffic. Nearly

00:05a month after reopening, they're celebrating their return. But high parking fees and other

00:10financial pressures remain a concern.

00:13Definitely the parking prices have been hiked and also the other thing is the parking is

00:21not free here. And in most of the shopping centres, like if you go to the other shopping

00:28centres, you have one hour, one and half hour and somewhere even six hours parking is free.

00:35And then there you can see the people visit a lot because they are free from paying parking.

00:44The price hikes aren't just hitting businesses, they're affecting staff and the wider community

00:49too.

00:50Absolutely ridiculous to the council. They need to generate more revenue, I understand

00:55that, but they've got to provide more parking spaces as well. It should be controlled, it

01:01should be a gradual increase, not a very big parking parking space. So, you know, I mean,

01:08Raynham has turned into a ghost town.

01:10It's a disgrace to the way it's gone up in leaps and bounds, whereas you pay £1.90 and you

01:19line them for half an hour. And then you go over to the dockside and you get the first

01:24hour for it. And then even then, for two hours, it's a lot cheaper than you.

01:31The other issue obviously is that my staff have to park locally to be able to come in and work.

01:37So that's impacting them. So in terms of the local economy, it's certainly not helping.

01:43It's not promoting business, not promoting trade. And for our local residents, it's certainly

01:51impacting them.

01:52A Medway council spokesperson said it is widely known that local authorities across the country

01:58are under increasing financial pressure and unfortunately this meant we were faced with

02:02some difficult decisions in setting this year's budget, including an increase in parking fees.

02:08Nevertheless, Medway remains a great location for business with more than 14,000 businesses

02:13located there and we are committed to supporting them as best we can.

02:18As rising costs continue to ripple through Raynham, members of the public are calling for change

02:23before more beloved businesses are potentially forced to shut their doors for good.

02:28Maisie Walker for KMTV, Raynham.

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