Years ago that might have been a valid strategy. But these days with tripadvisor and the like, word gets spread far and wide pretty quickly.

This may come back to bite them on the butt.

The Council's, and a lot of businesses, strategy seems to be to squeeze as much cash out of tourists as possible as cheaply as possible; it doesn't matter if the goods/services aren't all that great as a lot of tourists will only ever visit the town once anyway.

The point will come where the 'take' starts to drop off. Stratford relies on tourists, treating them as a cash cow when it comes to parking is unlikely to do the venue any favours. Of course, it won't affect the many overseas visitors as they will travel in by coach, but it may well start to deter the casual Sunday afternoon visitor or evening theatre goer.

This'll just squeeze more cash out of tourists; all the locals know the areas where there're no parking charges: http://www.stratford-herald.com/103708-parking-charges-rise-65s-keep-permits.html