Why Parking at Tesco and Shopping in the City Centre is Not Going to Work!

Tesco has made a big point of the idea of offering 'up to 3 hours' parking as part of the London Road development. It claims that this will allow time for shopping in Tesco and a visit to the City Centre. However, Tesco's recent actions show that the company doesn't like anyone spending too long parking - even if they spend all the time in Tesco! The Guardian reports today that Tesco wrote to an elderly, disabled couple who dared to spend 4 hours in a Tesco store to say,

"We know from research that the time limits exceed the time customers spend shopping in our stores and feel that they are fair and reasonable. Therefore could you please observe the time restrictions to avoid a parking charge notice being issued."

You might think this is an isolated incident, but a similar incident happened just a couple of days ago in Chorley, according to the Chorley Citizen.

The fact is that Tesco needs to keep a high turnover in its car parks to make a profit and has absolutely no interest in letting people go into the centre of St Albans (an unlikely thing for them to do anyway, given the steep hill in the way!). We remain deeply worried about Tesco's use of the phrase 'up to 3 hours' and fear that the company will vary parking times to ensure maximum use of the store with no thought for the wider needs of the community.