Berwick News
Tweedmouth Retail Park
10 January 2020
We’ve received assurances from Cheshire West with Chester Council that parking charges (‘fines’) at Tweedmouth Retail Park will cease immediately and that charges will not return until the scheme has been revised to address the concerns raised by us.
The Town Clerk contacted Cheshire West after the issues were raised by individual councillors. As the Town Clerk pointed out, it’s not in Berwick’s interests for any bad new story about one of our major retail parks to become a public controversy and, with individuals disputing charges raised in error for parking outwith the new restrictions, that was becoming close to inevitable.
Cheshire West have confirmed that they acknowledge the issue with their cameras not recording everyone leaving the car park via the service road, and they plan to put in place appropriate measures to prevent this happening. They also acknowledged that a restriction on multiple visits was self-defeating in what is a mixed use park that serves the town for neighbourhood as well as comparison shopping.
However, Cheshire West are clear they have a problem to deal with at Tweedmouth Retail Park. Instances have been reported to them by retailers of inappropriate use of the car park for overnight parking, and even of cars being offered for sale from the car park. They will therefore have to have some kind of scheme in place to prevent this happening - the car park is private property intended to enable the tenants of the retail park to operate their businesses.
They’ve promised to share any new plans for parking restrictions with us, and we’ve offered to help them get the message out round the town.