Pay Up for Seaside Parking!

In the UK however, they might have solved the problem by selling parking spots. The perfect beach parking can now be yours for only an equivalent of about Rs 2 500 000, a hefty price but is it worth it?

Not for everyone

Prices for the parking spaces, which are about 30 seconds walking distance from the centre of the popular beachfront town in St Ives in Cornwall, England, are said to be more than twice the average annual earnings (Rs 1 100 000) in the county. And in a time of austerity the move has less than impressed everyone in the area.

Speaking about the lots, town councillor Andrew Mitchell said: “It sticks in the throat of local people. It shows the mismatch in St Ives and many other Cornish villages and towns between the local population on low wages and seasonal jobs and second home owners.

'It is ridiculous that many of those that live here can't afford a home. They can't even afford one of these parking spaces,” Mitchell continued.

The spaces are on sale by estate agent Bradleys and employee Sam Peters said they have already turned down offers of an equivalent of about Rs 4 700 000 for two as they go ahead with an auction.

Plenty prepared to pay

Peters said: “We have got about 60 people who are interested. There is simply not enough parking capacity in the town for the number of people that are here. And there are plenty of people prepared to pay these prices. If a house has a parking space in St Ives the value shoots up, so the spaces will pay for themselves.”

The guide price of each space comes three months after another space was bought in the town for an equivalent of about Rs 2 750 000.

It isn’t a new idea either, two years ago, another parking space in the town went for a whopping  Rs 2 990 000 and one three-years before that sold for a comparatively meagre Rs 1 200 000.