You used the angry Smiley at the end of your initial post, which is why I assumed you were angry about the changes
The parking was never free if you think about it. There was still money that come out of Towers budget to cover it, now there is just a separate charge for it, rather than it been covered by the ticket price.
Sadly, you can not build a theme park, without a car park, and you can not have a car park, without buying additional land.
The current solution is to charge £6 per car. That means if there is only 4 people in the car, its only £1.50 per person, which is not bad. If your on your own, then of course your paying the full price.
Ideally, IMO, the ticket price should include the parking, but how much do you put tickets up by to cover the parking charge. £6 per ticket for the instance where one person is in a car, or £1.50 per ticket for where 4 people are in a car. Or do you make it £3.00 as 90% of people use BOGOF vouchers.
So based on that, I think it makes sense to have a separate charge. It also means Hotel Guests, and PAP holders can be given additional perks.
Ideally, you would want to pay for parking at the start of the day, and this would allow for reduced parking to be offered for late arrivals. The problem with this is that the queues to the car parks in the morning can already be out of the gate, and taking a payment for parking at the same time, would just increase this issue, which leaves the only option to pay on departure.
So what ever option they choose, it has a negative effect on guest experience. I guess the current solution generates the least number of compliments, requires the least amount of investment, and allows perks to be offered to guests.
Ian