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City Scene - Christchurch City Council Newsletter - March 1996
Following the successful launch of the overall marketing campaign for the City Centre, the Council's City Centre Marketing Team is about to launch two schemes to enhance shopping.
One is an improved complimentary parking card system and the other is a series of shopping guides to the city centre.
The parking card system is a partnership between individual retailers and the City Council Parking Unit. Retailers offer their customers cards entitling them to free parking for one or more hours in a Council parking building when they make a purchase.
When a card is handed in at a building the retailer is charged for half the cost of the parking and the other half is paid by the Parking Unit.
Cards can be used immediately or at a later stage, and they are recycled to save on costs and resources. The City Centre Marketing Team is encouraging retailers to join the scheme as parking is perceived as one of the main obstacles to shop ping in the City Centre. With enough retailers involved City Centre shoppers will find they rarely pay for parking.
The shopping guides will include a variety of retail categories, from food to fashion, and will enable visitors and locals to discover easily the diversity and choice the largest shopping area in Christchurch offers. The guides will be available from various outlets around town.
The job of the City Centre Marketing Team is to maintain the central city as the main focal point of Christchurch. Christchurch City Council believes the city centre belongs to all the residents of Christchurch and if it wanes the entire city will suffer.
The team has developed an image and identity which are being used to promote the special qualities of the City Centre. They feature in current advertising. The main issues the team is tackling are the perceived lack of parking in the City Centre and the unco-ordinated shopping hours, especially at weekends.