OUNDLE WAITROSE - PARK AND THRIVE?

PARK AND THRIVE? - NOT SURE ABOUT THAT

I have known the town of Oundle, where I live, since 1951. It’s a small place. Its thoroughfares are not quite as wide as they need to be in an age where personal transport is often somewhat larger than it needs to be. Its population is growing quite fast and there are signs that the town is now almost, not quite, big enough to provide for it. Its inadequacy is most obvious in its inability to provide convenient car parking space for all on busy days such as the weekly market or the monthly Farmers’ Market but, with a little patience, the car driver can usually find a space with a time limit of two hours or one hour – or, if prepared to walk a little, the driver can still find space unlimited in terms of time. In all the years I have been here I have never yet had to turn the car around, take it back home and then make the journey on foot.

In the centre of town there is a supermarket and car cark that was built on land that once had a delightful row of houses fronting onto St. Osyth’s Lane; those houses and their gardens made way for the Co-op and the car park. (I miss one of those houses, number 10, it was where my best friend at school used to lodge with his Aunt Janet and where I spent most of my evenings doing my homework. One of the charms of number 10 for me was the fact that the basement was flooded to a depth of several feet and furniture was floating there. This was probably one reason why the house and its terraced companions eventually had to go.

If one considers its centre Oundle really contains all the shops one needs to sustain life and there is a balance between what is available to be bought and what is needed by its inhabitants – and there is car parking space that is, subject to the restrictions mentioned above, adequate. I should also mention that there are two long-stay car parks to cope with the needs of people who work in the town and must get here by car. Of the shops I must mention that in addition to the large Co-op supermarket there is a small Tesco supermarket, there are  two butchers, a greengrocer, an art gallery, a bookshop, a stationer, a haberdasher-cum-ironmonger, a supplier of ‘white goods’, a shoe shop, two chemists, post office, a jeweller’s shop, ladies’ dress shops, four places where bread can be bought and that includes the newsagent, there are places for eating and drinking and these include several pubs as well as places where coffee features in their offerings. I could go on but I won’t. Imagine a place which is in equilibrium with itself. It lacks very little and its only shortcoming is that one cannot buy a men’s clothing there – not even underpants.

Oundle’s challenge came last year when the supermarket giant, Waitrose, applied for and received permission to build a supermarket on the outskirts of the town after a lengthy consultation process. Oundle, built on a hill, in the oxbow of the River Nene, the Waitrose store, which was built rapidly, is down the hill on the way to the major river bridge.

During the consultation process, which sought the views of all, and was conducted very properly, many of us asked why we needed another supermarket, a view I supported as I for one couldn’t eat any more food than I was currently eating. Some of us, quite a lot of us, were concerned about the intention to include a coffee shop within the building; we thought that it might rob our Town Centre suppliers of recreational coffee and other good things to eat, of trade. And it would remove a reason why a Waitrose customer would go into town where they might well buy other things. Our Councillors seemed to be sympathetic to this notion but somehow or other the coffee shop was included and is now doing a roaring trade and I’ll bet it is taking business from our Town Centre traders. Some of us have noted that not all Waitrose stores have coffee shops so it is not a prerequisite when opening a new one.

The plans for Waitrose also included a car park and a car park was duly built. Here’s the notion. Folk would come to Waitrose from the town itself and from the outlying villages, park their cars, do their shopping, stick it in the boot of the car and then saunter up the hill to have coffee, look around and perhaps buy some stuff they couldn’t buy in Waitrose or preferred not to buy in Waitrose. They might even have lunch in the town. This notion that Waitrose would somehow or other actually assist in the commercial activity of Oundle featured in the pro argument during the consultation process.

But, we now discover, these folk wouldn’t be very relaxed about doing this because there is a two hour limit on parking in the Waitrose car park and if they have spent, say, forty minutes shopping in Waitrose – very easily done – and they have shlepped up the hill they will start to worry because if they stay one minute past two hours they are liable to a penalty of £70.

YES, SEVENTY POUNDS

That’s worthy of an exclamation mark

SEVENTY POUNDS !

Of course there is also a two hour limit at the Co-op car park in the centre of town. The imposition of parking penalties for overstaying the time limit does take place there but, I suspect, rarely. You are more likely to get a polite handwritten note from the car park Manager, Debby, telling you not to do it again. If you are nabbed by one of the rarely seen Civil Enforcement Officers then a Penalty Charge Notice will be issued. You are then in the hands of public servants and you have rights one of which is that you have the right to appeal against a charge. You have the right of appeal to an independent adjudicator. Penalties, generally, by the way, vary from £70.00 if you do something serious such as parking on double yellow lines or in a disabled bay without a valid blue badge; overstaying your two hour limit would be £50 (are you reading this Waitrose?)  - both penalties are reduced by half if the charge is paid within 14 days (are you reading this Waitrose?).

And, of course, you are parked right in the centre of town and two hours gives you bags of time to buy a pair of shoes, have your eyes tested, get prescriptions fulfilled, and have lunch, or coffee and cake. You have time to walk along West Street and visit our superb Dolby arts gallery. When I am in town I am rarely there for as much as two hours and I do manage to eat there without suffering from Car Parking Tension. But add the shlepp up the hill from Waitrose and then back down the hill to Waitrose and CPT will start to rise in you.

If you go to Waitrose it is so much less hassle to just do the shopping and go home. Of course you could drive up the hill and enter the Co-op car park and have a couple of hours of stress-free parking. You could and I hope you do. But on the way back, as you pass Waitrose, don’t suddenly remember that you didn’t buy the anchovies because if you re-enter the car park within two hours of leaving it you are in for a fine of £70 irrespective of how long you stayed the first time.

YES SEVENTY POUNDS !

That’s worthy of two exclamation marks

SEVENTY POUNDS !!

Running this Waitrose car park with the penalties for transgression that I have revealed is bound to be difficult. There is a conflict between being the warm, welcoming lovely, cuddly, Waitrose that embraces you as you enter and is almost embarrassed about taking your money, this Waitrose which emits an aura of respectablity and responsibility and gives this emphasis by making every employee a ‘partner’ in the business – and a Waitrose that has uniformed men marching up and down between the ranks of parked cars, taking photographs, noting registration numbers and times of arrival, panting as a car’s period of parking approaches 115 minutes, then 116 minutes and then – the almost orgasmic moment as the two hour limit is reached. Bingo! And an explosion of cash just like winning the jackpot on a slot machine, with, no doubt a healthy bonus for the lucky attendant.

I have always had a feeling that if push came to shove then the Waitrose management would shove pretty hard. Notwithstanding its image as a sort of jolly, green giant it exists to make money, that’s what it is there to do. So how does it square its chosen image with the need to be tough when its customers get out of line? It hires.

It hires Euro Car Parks Ltd., which manages and controls the car park on behalf of Waitrose Ltd. So, if you get hit for a £70 penalty just for coming back to buy something else from Waitrose or taking too long over your lunch in the Waitrose cafe, then it’s Euro Car Parks you are supposed to get mad at not the jolly, green giant – you wouldn’t dream of doing that, would you?

I am not going to comment on Euro Car Parks and its way of doing business but I will say that it must be hard to be in the business of taking so much money from people, setting your face against their obvious anguish and pursuing them through debt collectors and the courts if they don’t – or can’t – stump up – without having an ethos of tough. It might be worth taking a look on Google, if you are interested, though.

It’s obvious that running a car park in a place like the isolated Oundle Waitrose is going to be difficult. You want to provide car spaces because you are isolated and if you didn’t then no-one would come. You don’t want people to just dump their cars in your spaces all day long. You want people to behave in a sensible manner … as most people will. You must also give thought to what you are taking from our town’s businesses  in terms of their sales income and stop discouraging your customers from leaving their cars with you and walking into town.

Why don’t you extend the parking period to three hours? Abandon the £70 penalty for overstaying. Drop the silly business of penalising people for returning within two hours. Get rid of Euro Car Parks and employ someone like Debby who will keep an eye on who is exploiting you, will warn them if they are and ban them if they won’t listen. And get rid of those signs which, in spite of their size, manage to get up the noses of all reasonable people!

Oh yes, and stock men’s underpants.