The controversial closure of the old Allders car park, cutting off access for shoppers to the Whitgift shopping centre, is just one of a series of moves undertaken by Westfield which appear to make visiting the shops in Croydon town centre more difficult and less inviting, and much more expensive.
No through road: the old Allders car park was closed last week, despite complaints from businesses in the Whitgift Centre
Car park charges have gone up by almost £6, to £11.50 for anyone staying longer than four hours.
Westfield arrived in Croydon in 2012, promising to deliver a £1.4billion redevelopment of the Whitgift and Centrale shopping centres with offices, cafes and restaurants, some entertainment venues, almost 1,000 new homes, and one of their special temples to retailing. Twelve years on, two planning applications, a public inquiry and CPO later, and not a brick has been laid, nor a wall demolished.
But the multi-billion multi-national developers, now based in Paris, are gradually squeezing greater control over both existing shopping malls, as demonstrated by the parking changes.
Centrale’s car park has space for 950 vehicles, the Whitgift Centre car park 1,456. They were managed by NCP until 2021, and Westfield have recently replaced the previous operator with a new one, called FAAC Mobility Services. Gone are the old-style payment machines, and now to pay for their parking, motorists will need a smartphone app. Another one…
FAAC appears to manage car parking at other Westfield sites.
While council car parks around the borough are being moved to RingGo, the town centre, FAAC car parks use one called JPASS.
The first hour parked in either car park will cost £2.50. Stay for four hours or more (up to 24 hours) in Centrale and it is £8.50; for some reason, in the Whitgift car park, the charge for four hours-plus is £11.50 – an increase of 100%.
Going up: charges in the town centre car parks have been hiked
But Inside Croydon readers bold enough to venture into Croydon town centre and park their cars relate that the process is not only more expensive, but also far from straightforward.
“On Monday I parked and paid by app as usual but on Tuesday there were ‘no search results’ on that app,” said one reader who works in the town centre.
“No machine in the area I park in or where the old machine had been located. I scanned the QR code on the wall but kept getting error messages.
“Even after downloading a new app, verifying my email, and going through the whole, laborious process, the car park I had parked in was not yet listed on the app!
“On top of all that hassle, according to the centre website, it will now cost me £11.50 instead of £5.70 to park whenever I go in as a charity volunteer.”
The reader was feeling properly FAAC’d off.
“It appears that Westfield really don’t want people to come into Croydon and shop in their centres, or to buy more than a small, light item that they can carry home on the bus or tram.”
Croydon BID, the business improvement (our italics) district organisation which supposedly represents businesses in the town centre, and Jason Perry, Croydon’s part-time Mayor (and director of Croydon BID), have been completely silent on the matter.
Read more: Businesses on the brink as Whitgift Centre set to close car park
Read more: Mayor sneaks in night-time parking charges across borough
Read more: Barwell, Brexit and Croydon’s troubled Westfield dream
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