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 2003, the centre was acquired by the Centro Properties Group in a stock trade deal involving Toombul and other Westfield properties in exchange for Centro's interest in the AMP Shopping Centre Trust. As a result, the centre changed its name from Westfield Toombul to Centro Toombul. In 2005, Centro announced a 2-stage extension to the centre. The first stage added an Aldi Food Store, Fresh Life fresh food mall and additional specialty stores. The second stage of expansion (which never commenced) was to add Diner's Life food court on the ground level and convert the old cinemas into a rooftop