“The high street is not attracting people for a number of reasons. Excessive parking charges are one, dog poo and empty beer can lined streets are another, feral kids, closed shops, druggies hanging on every street corner, charity muggers, better deals on-line, poor service from uneducated and unmotivated British shop workers (The rest of Europe is not a problem), poor quality goods, agressive drunks alcoholics and criminals that are housed around the town centre .... the list is endless AND in the end if we don't NEED a TOWN CENTRE then it will ultimately disappear.”

“the units are empty because there is no spend power; the government has made cuts in every sector and made even more jobless people with no money to spend, claiming benefits that the government cant afford to pay.
customer service is relative to where you shop. With stores having to cut back on costs, staffing being one of them, just stay open, the staff you do see are underpaid and have twice the work load as they did 5 years ago. With the giants like Primark leading the way on disposable cheap fashion, the customer service it represents does not reflect all retailers, and it is a shame to tar everyone with the same brush.
there are aggressive drunks and criminals all over the country; Torbay in general seems more sensitive and shocked by this behavior and unable to deal with it. Perhaps because they have cut the services that could have the ability to deal with the antisocial behavior.
the general public have less disposable income, so my point was the council has the opportunity to reduce the cost of visiting the town center, this in turn has the potential to encourage people to spend within the local economy - then perhaps the raised footfall might attract independents to fill the empty units and enrich the shopping diversity.
Saying we don't need a town center is saying we don't need social interaction, that we may as well stay at home and shop on line and not see a human soul.”

“Before we had Town Centre shopping people shopped locally, at weekly markets or visited the producer. Town centres arose to meet a purpose, a retail purpose and a social pupose. But if we can get by without them so be it. We will still socially interact and we will still shop. You are being a tad simplistic and alarmist, do you own or work in a town centre shop by any chance. Looking after number one will always be the prime motivating factor in anything, especially complaining.”

“Just returned from France where enjoyed free parking for two weeks. As a result of free parking the towns we visited were busy and trade looked healthy despite France being in just as bad a financial state as the uk and I believe unemployment at a higher rate. The Councillors are burying their heads in the sand if they cannot see the harm they are doing to business. Must say I was imporessed by the politness of the French shopkeeper and ours would do well to realize that a cheery 'good morning' and cherio would go a long way to improving customer relationships and does npot cost a penny! Problem with the parking charges is that the Councillors will not listen to the tax payers and so nothing will change except that the high street shops will disappear. Already out of town shopping centres are being foirced to make parking charges - crazy crazy crazy. Thank goodness for the internet!!”

“apart from the price, the thing that annoys me is having to decide when I arrive how long I am going to be. Creating more pay on exit car parks would help a bit. Parking meters would be better that parking ticket dispensers, at least if you put two hours on a meter and drive off after one hour, someone else can use the unused time for free. At the moment the council gets extra revenue from spaces vacated early if a second vehicle parks in them.”

“You can pop into Castle Circus to deal drugs, do a bit of shoplifting down Fleet Walk, get blind drunk and assualt someone on the harbourside but if it takes you more than two hours to do all of this you will get a parking fine for overstaying on a meter. It is good to see the criminal justice system can work in some cases.”

“If someone chooses to drive they buy car and pay all the costs associated with it which includes parking costs. therefore why should car owners be effectively subsidised by council tax payers?”

“...therefore why should the council be effectively subsidised by car owners. Who already pay road tax - vat and duty on petrol. Do pedestrians pay pavement costs for walking on council pavements which need to be maintained.”

“It's very simple. We pay council tax a certain amount of which pays for roads and pavements.”

“The latest parking machines were installed in the first week in April, so to say they are popping up new every week is grossly inaccurate. Also a large proportion of the on street meters are free on a Sunday and to add to this the on street machines in lymington road and magdalene road are just £1 for 4 hours Monday - Saturday. None of us are forced to drive a car but if you choose to own and drive one it is only fair you pay all costs accociated with it. I for one would sooner pay for parking than have my council tax go up to help plug the financial gap created by the government.”