SATURDAY afternoon car park fees, for parking in Caradon's five towns, are set to be lifted by the council.

The proposal is aimed at encouraging greater use of town centres, and supporting local businesses. It would apply only in the winter in Looe, but throughout the year in Liskeard, Callington, Torpoint and Saltash.

The news was welcomed by the chairman of Liskeard Chamber of Commerce, Roger Terry, who said it was 'something the Chamber has wanted for a long, long time.'

Shop locally

He added if it serves to encourage more people to shop locally, rather than travelling to Plymouth, then it is 'very, very good news'.

He hoped it would prevent the prevalence of Saturday shopping falling away slightly after 11am, and explained the Chamber would like to see as much concessionary parking as possible.

Mr Terry said parking fees were just a way of raising revenue, and he felt this could be done in other ways. He said if free parking makes more people shop locally then more businesses will be attracted to Caradon's towns, and more business rates can then be collected.

Members of Caradon's Cabinet also feel that there should be no increase, in the next financial year, for parking up to an hour in urban car parks, although other prices will rise at car parks such as Westbourne and Upper Sungirt in Liskeard and Riverbank at Looe. It is thought that this would generate extra revenue of £23,000.

The pay and display charge in the Millpool car park, West Looe, looks likely to increase, along with the introduction of a SMART card scheme for local residents, which would keep their prices lower.

Cost

It was thought bringing in the SMART card scheme, initially introducing in Saltash, on a district-wide basis would have major cost implications.

Cabinet members, who were told at their meeting this week that there had been generally favourable reaction to the Saltash scheme, heard that introducing such a project to Looe along with rises for non-locals would bring in around £40,000.

The Cabinet backed a recommendation not to introduce pay and display charges at the Broads Yard Downderry, Freathy, Millbrook and Gunnislake car parks, or at Luxstowe House, Liskeard which is Caradon council headquarters.

Resentment

It was felt implementing charges at Luxstowe would 'cause resentment and be difficult to administer'.

Reserved and unreserved parking permits are likely to rise in the region of 7%. This would keep these charges at around 50% for reserved permits, and 33% for unreserved permits, of the cost of daily charges for pay and display.

The Cabinet gave the go-ahead to recommendations, as set out, but the matter will be decided by the full council meeting on January 23.