Merry Hill Shopping Centre closing in June 1990. A further blow came when the local council, Dudley Metropolitan Borough, announced that it was bringing in parking charges throughout the area; this turned more shoppers away from local town centres, and towards the Merry Hill Centre, where parking remains free. Though there have been plans for introducing parking charges at the centre, this has been criticised, ironically, due to fears of impacting trade. In 2008, Merry Hill Centre, along with nearby Brierley Hill, was redesignated as the 'strategic town centre' of the Dudley Borough, and thus the focus of future local government investment. The Merry
Toombul Shopping Centre Westfield founders travelled to Brisbane to inspect the site. Realising the commercial potential of the area, the company purchased the property. To overcome the flooding issues, Westfield employed experts at a local university to develop a plan. The solution was to fill and raise one half of the site to build the centre and construct a bridge across the creek. There were also problems finding a department store to anchor the centre and filling the specialty retail spaces at the centre. As Toombul was close to the Chermside Shopping Centre, which was anchored by a department store, other department stores