Car park charges have been slashed at a busy shopping centre.
Tickets have been drastically reduced by between 55 per cent and 38 per cent at Eagles Meadow in Wrexham town centre.
Among the changes is a new one hour rate of £1 for people who just need to pop there for a quick visit.
The two hour rate has been cut from £3.10 to £1.50 while the three hour charge is down from £4.40 to £2, with a reduction in the four hour fee from £5.60 to £3.50.
Meanwhile, the evening rate has been reduced from £2.50 to £1.50 for people going to the cinema, tenpin bowling or to eat at one of the centre’s restaurants.
The change has come about because the lease held by car park operators Vinci has been terminated by mutual agreement and another company has taken it over.
The new operators are multi-national car park specialists Secure Parking who have more than a million car parking spaces in 11 countries world-wide.
Eagles Meadow is their first car park in Wales.
Guy Watson, Secure Parking’s UK General Manager, has said “Secure Parking are delighted to add the Eagles Meadow car park to our growing list of first class parking facilities.
“We are looking forward to working with the Eagles Meadow centre management to ensure the shopping centre remains a key retail offering within Wrexham.”
The news has been hailed by centre manager Kevin Critchley as “a fantastic early Christmas present” for shoppers.
Mr Critchley said: “I am overjoyed that our shoppers are now able to enjoy dramatically reduced rates for parking at Eagles Meadow.
“The new rates compare favourably with the charges in other car parks in town.
“This is great news for everybody concerned – our shoppers, our stores and our leisure outlets. Everyone’s a winner.
“We’ve got a new one hour rate that we’ve introduced so that’s going to be good for food shoppers at M&S but also people coming in for prescriptions at Boots or just popping in for something.
“The other change is that the evening rate has now been reduced so that from 6pm it’s only £1.50 to park in a covered, well-lit and secure car park.
“I think people do forget sometimes that it is one of the most well-lit and secure and CCTV covered car parks possibly in North Wales, certainly in Wrexham.
“The news is a fantastic Christmas present. It’s basically come and do what we’ve always said you should do at Eagles Meadow which is you should come here, do a bit of shopping, do a bit of eating and do a bit of leisure activities. So we’re saying eat, shop and play.
“Since we opened in 2008, Eagles Meadow has now firmly established itself as a top retail destination, with a fantastic range of high street favourites and a choice of great independent stores.
“In conjunction with the managing agents JLL, the landlords have continued to work on improving Eagles Meadow as they had promised when they purchased the shopping centre in April this year and this is another positive step which will help the centre continue to thrive and prosper.
“The future is looking bright with at least six new leases signed over the last six months, including toy shop The Entertainer and women’s fashion store Roman.
“The fantastic reductions in car parking charges will help take us to the next level and emphasise Eagles Meadow’s credentials as the shopping capital of North Wales.”
