Cheb wants to stop the depopulation of the square, it will introduce free parking

Cheb - The historic square of King George of Poděbrady in Cheb is becoming deserted. The city hall wants to reverse the trend of shops disappearing from there by not increasing rent this year and introducing short-term free parking. With parking discs, it could become 90 minutes free on the square starting in April, said Deputy Mayor Tomáš Linda (ODS) to reporters today.
    Free parking for a limited time is intended to help attract customers who have been deterred by having to pay at parking meters. "Although revenues from parking meters reach hundreds of thousands of crowns, if we can bring people back to the square, it will pay off," believes Linda.
    Two more tenants of non-residential spaces are set to leave the square soon, where most of the buildings are owned by the city. Although the city hall leadership claims that rents in city-owned buildings in the center are not high and are rather at the lower end of the rental prices in the city, the long-term trend is such that shops are moving from the historic center to shopping centers on the outskirts of the city and people are also moving away from the center.
    According to the mayor of Cheb, Pavel Vanoušek (ČSSD), the city will not raise rents by the inflation coefficient this year. "We decided at the council that the increase of 1.4 percent will not be applied. We are reacting to the situation on the real estate market and the ongoing recession, where offers exceed demand for rental spaces," added Vanoušek.
    According to Linda, the city does not have many options to bring customers back to the city center. One of them is events organized by the city, such as the Christmas markets, which attracted thousands of visitors. However, these are more of one-time activities. According to Linda, it would be beneficial if an investor could be brought to the center to build, preferably by remodeling one of the historic buildings, a place where people would be willing to visit.