No Free Parking Day for Christmas

South Oxfordshire District Council for many years have given free parking in the Kings Road and Greys Road car parks in Henley in the lead up to Christmas to encourage residents to shop locally.  This year however they have decided not to offer this.

A spokesperson for SODC said, “To help tackle the climate emergency, reduce congestion, improve local air quality and set South Oxfordshire on course for a carbon neutral future, we’re encouraging residents to keep their car at home when doing their Christmas shopping this year.

“We will no longer provide special free car parking days in November and December to encourage residents to travel by bus, foot or bike, where possible. For those that can’t, we still offer the first hour of parking for free all year round and are asking residents to car share, where possible, to reduce the number of vehicles on the road.

“To help support our local, independent businesses, earlier this year we launched a local digital high street at ShopAppy.com – a website showing local products available from town centre retailers that can be delivered or picked up from a collection point.

“The climate emergency is the biggest challenge we all face and we can’t shy away from difficult decisions about policies that contribute to carbon emissions.”