THE correlation between free parking is clearly complicated in Darlington. On the one hand, the Conservatives argue that footfall has fallen every month bar one since free parking after 2pm was abandoned in July 2023, suggesting that parking charges are driving people away.

On the other hand, Labour argues that people are coming less frequently but they are staying longer to get full value for their parking and consequently spending more in the town’s shops.

Without further drilling into the figures, it is impossible to say which argument is correct, but it is possible to say that no one likes parking charges and that, by and large, if you are faced with a choice, you will end up at and out-of-town retail park where you can stay outside the shop door for free.

However, as town centres change, we are doing less big ticket shopping in them. Instead we are popping in for a coffee or a specific item. Here, a few pennies for a few minutes parking is unlikely to deter anyone.

But the convenience of paying will. Once-upon-a-time, everyone carried pockets full of small change which you could feed into meters.

Now, no one carries change, and everyone has a different means of paying: by card, by phone, by app. But each town has a different app, and each meter – if you can read the directions in small writing on the screen in the glaring sun or the pouring rain – has a different foible, rejecting a card or accepting a phone, or vice-versa.

If we are to pay, at least we could have conveniently and consistently operating meters.

But, in their heart of hearts, absolutely no one wants to pay, and our hunch, after looking at the figures, is that parking charges are one of many factors that have made people fall out of love with their local high street.