SURREY – Council candidate Rina Gill is taking up the plight of the small business owners in Newton who are angry at the parking meters that are hindering their business.
“I’ve been hearing buzz in the community and in the media about business owners being upset with the parking meters that were installed on 137th Street in the Newton area of Surrey. I’ve seen Letters to the Editors from business owners in the area in both the mainstream and ethnic media. Up until now, nothing has been done,” said Gill who is hoping for better results this Saturday (today) when Surrey votes to elect new council.
“Since I live in Newton, I frequent this area quite often and when I noticed the parking meters, I indirectly avoided parking there as well. I usually spend an extra 5-10 minutes searching for free parking and then end up walking quite a bit of a distance to my destination. While visiting with some of these businesses, I learned that if you are using the free parking in the adjacent mall but then coming to the shops on 137th street, you can potentially get a ticket. I wasn’t aware of this until now. Apparently, the parking enforcement officer is strict and patrolling the area on a regular basis,” she said.
“Since I’m a small business owner; I can completely empathize with the challenges the others are dealing with. This part of Newton is a low income area. People cannot afford to pay for parking, so what ends up happening is they avoid visiting the shops and businesses in this area altogether. This has resulted in approximately 15% decrease in revenue for all the businesses along 137th Street.”
Gill spoke to one owners who walked her through the whole process the City undertook to install these parking meters. The business owners presented the City of Surrey a lengthy petition of people who opposed the parking meters; however the City continued to proceed with their original plans.
“Now the City is re-evaluating this decision to see if it’s benefiting them revenue-wise. If people are opting to go elsewhere instead of paying the parking fees on 137th street, then it defeats the purpose of setting this up as a revenue stream for the City and the businesses are losing out on customers,” she said.
“Why did City of Surrey choose this street to install parking meters in the first place? I’d like to know the rationale behind how this was determined. I understand one of the objectives was to prevent people from parking in one spot all day long, however other solutions should have been considered. Also, how much did it cost the City of Surrey to install these parking meters? And now, how much is it going to cost to remove and relocate them?”
