Car park management

The rather scruffy pay and display machine in what was the municipal car park in Brading, next to the church and opposite what was the village school, now more or less disused. The scruffy list of charges having slid down to the bottom of the neighbouring post. A car park which was once complete with toilet block and weekly market, a market where we have been known to buy meat pies, cherries and green vegetables, all island fabricated. Now, seemingly let out to an outfit only described as Lilyjames Ltd.

It is possible that running car parks is a sideline of the outfit at reference 1, this last being the best that google could do. Who knows.

In any event, very scruffy compared with the much busier car park at the beach at Yaverland, a few miles down the road, possibly still run by the council itself, or at least not on such an arms-length basis as that at Brading. At Yaverland, one has smart new machines and proper notices, smart new notices which have a  municipal smell about them.

One can understand why the council don't want to bother too much with the car park at Brading, which must do only a small fraction of the trade of that at Yaverland, but is is scruffy. I would prefer the council to run all of them on much the same lines, to have a bit of pride in their image, in the way of a Pret or a Costa Coffee.

I dare say the council would prefer too, but in these times of austerity, this is just one of many difficult decisions.

PS: as it happens, now I come to think about it, I have not seen either a Pret or a Costa Coffee on the island. Surely they have a toe-hold somewhere?

Reference 1: http://lilyjameshomes.co.uk/.