00:00They're not welcome here. Reid's post has put up in businesses across a Sheppey town.
00:07After Swirlborough Council implemented charges on car parks that, until the beginning of this month, were free.
00:15And this is one of the car parks in Queenborough that you now need to pay to stay in.
00:20The sun is out, it's only 3pm, and yet where is everyone?
00:24This car park, apart from the two cars I can see, is very large and very empty.
00:28I've even seen cars drive in and drive out without even staying.
00:33Some businesses are so infuriated by the paid car parks that they've put signs in their window saying the Swirlborough
00:40Council is responsible are actually banned.
00:43So I went to go meet them.
00:46Customers love my food. They love my service.
00:52That's why I don't want to lose my customers, and I offer them, if they park their car in the
01:01park, I will pay them the first one hour.
01:04But I can do this, I do this now, but if this comes to one year every day, if I
01:10pay them, it costs me too much money.
01:12In Queenborough, there are two car parks that visitors must now pay to stay in, starting at £1.60 an
01:20hour.
01:21These posters name and shame the councillors that voted for these new measures, which was started by the Flying Dutchman,
01:28when the proposals were initially introduced last year.
01:32Although the landlord didn't want to chat, the bar manager, stopping at the nearby Rose Inn, told me business was
01:39on the rocks.
01:40Yep, it's affecting us massively. The car park's empty every single day. During the week, the sun's out. We've got
01:47usual people in the garden and stuff. We're having no one at the minute. Very, very quiet. Parties, everything is
01:54just at least halved.
01:56If one of those councillors walked into your restaurant, would you serve them?
02:00No, not just for my business. I don't want to serve them because they don't live here. They don't know
02:06what's the problem here.
02:07No, get out of our park.
02:09Honestly, I don't want to ban them. They don't even know where we are, to be fair to them.
02:14They want to come in, I'll take their money, because we need it to survive at the moment.
02:19Charles was the only councillor mentioned on the sign who was up for chatting.
02:23I mean, obviously, businesses are entitled to serve who they want. That's their prerogative. It wouldn't be my way of
02:29operating.
02:30One of the really annoying, boring bits of local government rules is money that you make on parking can only
02:37be spent on parking stuff.
02:38So this pot of money that we had available to put in these machines and generate this income could only
02:44be used for that.
02:45But with things not set to change for the foreseeable, it's up to the businesses then to see the glass
02:51as half full rather than half empty.
02:54Megan Shaw for Kame TV in Queenborough.
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