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One of Suffolk's best known retailers is locked in legal negotiations with a Suffolk council over the introduction of new parking tariffs at a car park it owns. Roys of Sudbury leases its car park at Great Eastern Road to Babergh District Council. The authority introduced controversial new parking tariffs at its car parks across its district on January 13 this year.
But ten days later, motorists are currently enjoying free parking at the 268 space car park - the second largest in Sudbury - where the ticket machines are standing idle while land owner Roys and council chiefs reach an agreement. A spokesman for Roys, which has been trading in the town since 1996, said: "We are holding ongoing discussions with the council regarding plans to introduce car park charges at the Great Eastern car park, situated at our Roys Sudbury store. "We are committed to ensuring that the impact of these charges is minimised for our customers as much as possible.
We continue to work closely with the council with the aim of agreeing a suitable resolution as soon as possible." A spokesperson for Babergh District Council said: "While the car park is managed by Babergh, the land is owned by Roys, so we need to work together to ensure the correct legal framework is in place for the future, and this is taking longer than hoped. "We hope to have a refund scheme in place soon, so customers can continue to enjoy free parking while they shop at Roys.
” The new parking charges were introduced by Babergh council at its car parks in Sudbury, Hadleigh and Lavenham after it said subsidising the previous three hour free-parking was costing the authority £425,000. Now customers have to pay £1 for short stay parking for the first hour or £1 for two hours in long stay car parks. The car park at Roys in Sudbury (Image: Google Maps) The parking charges have proven to be controversial among residents and business owners in the town.
Jamie Towells, left, is looking at how he can help customers at his Jamie's Meat Inn butchers (Image: Jamie Towells) Jamie Towells, owner of Jamie's Meat Inn in North Street, revealed earlier this month that he is considering paying for customers parking to help them out. While he is unsure of the effects it will have, he is liaising with his store manager on how a potential scheme could work. Babergh council has previously said it believes the charges to be modest and below those of neighbouring authorities.
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