DDC supports Small Business Saturday and reduces parking charging times

Dover District Council is supporting Small Business Saturday for the second year running by offering free parking in DDC off-street car parks all day on Saturday 6 December.

This follows news that DDC is reducing its parking charging times from Monday 8 September, which means instead of charging from 9am to 6pm, DDC will charge from 9am to 5pm for on and off street parking. DDC's Cabinet agreed in April to reduce car parking charging times in the district. This has now been through legal processes, and has been agreed by KCC for on-street, and starts from 5pm on 8 September.

Small Business Saturday is designed to raise the profile of small businesses across the UK, and as part of the initiative, DDC will be offering free car parking in all its off-street car parks on Saturday 6 December (parking charges will still apply on-street, and at car parks not owned by the Council, including the Sainsbury's and Co-op car parks in Deal).

Cllr Nigel Collor, DDC Cabinet Member for Access and Property Management, said: "Small businesses are the lifeblood of our town centres, and we are very pleased to support Small Business Saturday again this year. We hope that people working in the town will park where they usually do to allow potential customers to take advantage of this offer of free parking.

"We are also pleased to introduce reduced parking charging times across the district. Our charging period is now shorter than other East Kent Councils, we also have a number of free car parks in the district, a low cost car park in each of our three towns, and our parking charges are amongst the lowest in East Kent."