Madam, I would like to bring you up-to-date with work that the Town Council has been doing to try and improve the management of Ross's many car parks.

Recently the Mayor Cllr David Ravenscroft and I had a meeting with Cllr Adrian Blackshaw and Shane Hancock (Regulatory Service Manager for Herefordshire Council) on Monday, October 3rd at which we asked them to consider the following proposals:

A free afternoon in the car parks one day a week (following consultation with ART to determine which would be the most helpful), following the loss of free parking on Sundays

Free parking for coaches

Free parking after 3pm on the run up to Christmas

Free parking on Sunday, December 4th which is the date for the ART Christmas Extravaganza

We also requested that there be transparency in the cost of enforcing charges on Sundays and better signage around the town for the car parks.

I'm pleased to say that Cllr Blackshaw was able to inform us that the County Council had in fact already decided to offer free parking to coaches and that no charges would be enforced on bank holidays as first proposed. Further to the meeting Mr Hancock has been able to tell me that Ross will have free car parking on Sunday 4th December and on one afternoon of each of the following 3 weeks leading up to Christmas. This last item will be brought up for discussion at the ART AGM next week to enable the members to decide which afternoon would be of most benefit.

The Town Council remains very disappointed by the lack of consultation before the new parking charges were announced and may be considering further action on this issue at its November meeting.

We look forward to a further meeting as soon as possible with Cllr Blackshaw and Mr Hancock to hear the County Council's response to our other suggestions.

Cllr Caroline Utting