Month: June 2020
Parking charges lifted temporarily in town and city car parks to support business
To support local business during this particularly difficult time and encourage people to visit their high street rather than shop on-line, Herefordshire Council is offering free parking on street and in council car parks* from Saturday 27 June until Friday 24 July 2020.
Cllr John Harrington, Cabinet member for infrastructure and transport explains:
“After listening to the concerns expressed by parish and town councils, by ward members and particularly those from businesses and Hereford BID, I’ve taken the decision to reintroduce free parking for four weeks, to help give retailers and the hospitality trade a much needed boost at this critical time.
“We hope to be able to follow this with a scheme later in the year with incentives to encourage people to stay for longer for less money, encouraging them to spend more time supporting our retail and hospitality outlets, particularly our independent businesses.
“Like every other council across the country we have parking charges for several good reasons. Charges help us to encourage people to travel in a different way, by walking or cycling for example. For those that want to or must drive, varying those charges allows us to encourage shoppers and other visitors to park outside the urban centres by charging them less for staying longer, whilst those that want to park right in the centres are expected to pay more. Charges keep spaces turning over especially in the City and town centres.
“Ideally we would love people to really think about travelling a different way in town, especially when you consider for example that over 50% of the residents of Hereford travel less than two miles to shop or commute to work. We have all been encouraged by the boost in walking and cycling lockdown brought and we intend to support those ambitions in any way we can whilst recognising some folks must travel in by car.
“Herefordshire Council has made a commitment to support local business, encourage people to visit our historic city and market towns, and buy locally. After years of austerity and with challenging financial times ahead we cannot afford to provide free parking forever as we use this income to subsidise public transport and school buses. So, in the longer term we will be looking at other ways to encourage people to safely visit our wonderful city and historic market towns. There is an opportunity to look to do things in a different way while supporting local business.”
Discretionary Grants Fund set to benefit local businesses
To date, around £55.2m has been paid out to more than 4,700 businesses in the county in government grant funding support in response to the impact of Covid-19, however not all businesses have been eligible for these grants.
The government has now introduced an additional discretionary grants fund which will help provide assistance to some of the businesses that have not had access to other support schemes. The discretionary grants fund managed by Herefordshire Council will award grants reflecting the size of business, level of fixed property costs and scale of impact experienced.
The amount of funding the council has received is limited at £3.2m, so there is a set of eligibility criteria which each applicant will need to meet.
Businesses eligible to receive this new funding must be a small or micro business, charity, or social enterprises with a turnover of not more than £10.2m and fewer than 50 staff.
Applicants must be either a small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces; market traders with fixed building costs who do not have their own business rates assessment; bed & breakfasts which pay council tax instead of business rates or charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief.
Cllr Ellie Chowns, Cabinet Member for Environment, Economy and Skills, said: “The Covid-19 crisis has hit many Herefordshire businesses very hard, and I know this has been a deeply worrying time for them. We know that there are many who have not been eligible for central government grant funding to date, so I am very pleased that this new grant is now available. It will provide much-needed assistance to some of the businesses that have ‘fallen through the cracks’ of existing support schemes.
“Unfortunately the funding we have been given is very limited – not enough to plug all the gaps. In distributing this funding we are trying to help as many businesses as possible, while continuing to press government for further funding to support the local economy and help us build back better.”
Applications must be received by 23:59, Sunday 28 June 2020.
Drivers granted 7 month photocard licence extension
To make it easier for drivers who need to update their photocard licence with a new photo at the end of the 10 years validity, photocard driving licences that expire between 1 February 2020 and 31 August 2020 will be automatically extended for 7 months from the expiry date.
Drivers do not need to take any action as the extension will be automatic and they will be sent a renewal reminder before their 7 month extension ends.
If a driver has already applied online to renew their photocard, this will be processed as normal. If they have already sent a paper application to renew their photocard there will be delays in processing, but the 7 month extension will apply in the meantime.
This extension applies to the photocard renewal date. It does not apply where a driver’s entitlement to drive is due to expire if they wish to continue to hold a valid licence – they need to renew this in the normal way.