Waitrose has

amended its parking charges in Monmouth following feedback from customers.

Caroline Sullivan, branch manager of Waitrose and Richard Motherley, deputy manager, spoke to councillors at Monday night's town council meeting (8th December) and said that the company understood there was a great deal of feeling within the town and from within the council about the present charging system.

New fees introduced on Monday mean that customers are now able to park in the car park for the first hour free, although a pay and display ticket will need to be on show.

The second hour will cost £1 which will be refunded if a minimum of £10 is spent within the store.

There is a two hour maximum stay and no return for the following two hours. Blue badge holders will have two hours free parking. These charges will apply between 10am and 5pm, Monday to Saturday.

Councillors responded mostly positively to these changes, although Councillor Jeana Hall said she was not happy with the charges at all.

Cllr Stuart Wilson, who chairs the planning committee, said that he was very happy and acknowledged that Waitrose had gone through all the legal procedures. He added his annoyance that those councillors and people who complained did not do so during the proper opportunity when the planning application went through. To Waitrose's representatives, he said: "Congratulations, you have done a good job and your charges are small compared to Monmouthshire County Council."

Cllr Bob Hayward agreed saying the previous charging regime was controversial in the town and it was nice to see the company had responded to customer feedback.

Cllr Sue White said she had been insulted by those people who had "bragged" that they had never shopped in Waitrose but had used their car park and gone shopping all day in town.

"I had been inconvenienced that I could never park there, but now I can."

Cllr Anne Were asked if they could guarantee that these charges will be in place after Christmas. Richard Motherley replied that the charges would

be permanent.

Cllr Jeana Hall asked if they had changed their policy because they had lost trade?

Richard Motherley explained: "it was primarily because of the reaction from customers, it was never our intention to isolate or drive customers away.

"The whole purpose was to ensure that customers that wanted to shop in Waitrose, could. There will be customers who have gone elsewhere, I hope that they don't like what they see elsewhere and come back to us," he added.

Responding to a question by Cllr Dewhurst, Caroline Sullivan explained that the issue of parking for the doctors surgery had now been addressed by the first hour being free: "Our preference would have been to have had the barrier, it was a significantly lower cost system, but that had to be removed for a number of reasons. Firstly because of vandalism, which was ongoing and continuous, and cost us several thousand pounds a month.

Secondly the verbal abuse that was received by the partner working in that area and thirdly the number of vehicles that drove through the barrier, deliberately and non-deliberately, and therefore caused a danger to our partners and fellow car-users. The barrier would have been a far cheaper option to us, however it didn't work and those huts are being removed by all Waitrose branches for that reason," she concluded.

Any feedback or questions can be sent to the branch manager via email; [email protected]">[email protected]