There used to be a time when enjoying a stroll in the fresh air was free. However, the Council is considering, to set their sights on charging visitors of Cherry Orchard Park adding to their car parking ‘cash cow’ scheme.
Residents, who already pay to maintain this site through their Council tax, will now be asked to ‘stump up’ additional fees for using the car park.
As there as been no formal notification to opposition Councillors we have not been able to put forward any views on these proposals yet and have merely been informed that conversations about this have taken place between certain parties… (we really don’t know what’s going on here!)
As soon as we get more information we will update
Cherry Orchard Park was created as a sweetener for the development of western Rayleigh. As it is pretty much impossible for western Rayleigh residents to visit the park without using their cars (I always thought it was a bad deal to get a facility so far away), I would suggest the parking charges are in contravention to the Park’s original purpose.
Perhaps if they introduce parking charges, they could run a free shuttle bus to Rawreth Lane ;-).