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
Woden Town Centre in the district of the Woden Valley. The postcode is 2606. The Woden Town Centre neighbours the suburbs of Lyons from the north west, Chifley directly from the west and Pearce from south west, Curtin from north, Hughes from the north east, Garran directly from the east and O'Malley from south east, while Mawson borders from the south. The main shopping centre of Woden Town Centre is Westfield Woden, formerly called 'Woden Plaza' and 'Woden Shopping Square'. Westfield Woden includes major supermarkets (Woolworths and Coles), department stores such as David Jones and Big W, Hoyts cinemas and many other stores