AN attempt by Conservative councillors to scrap Sunday parking charges in Salisbury and reduce the cost of park and ride was defeated at Monday night's full meeting of Salisbury District Council.

The Tories also lost a move to reduce the cost of some on-street parking charges in the city.

The Conservatives themselves introduced Sunday parking in July 2006 when they were still running the council but Amesbury member Dennis Brown argued that was a medium term move to help overcome a budget shortfall and the charge was no longer needed.

He and fellow Conservatives claimed to continue it, and increase the charge, as planned by the current joint Liberal Democrat and Labour administration was unfair to churchgoers and would hit Sunday trading Cllr Brown and the Conservative group also argued that increasing park and ridge charges would deter motorists, particularly shoppers, from using the scheme. They said that instead of increasing the charge from £2 to £2.50, it should be reduced to £1.50.

But transport portfolio holder Helen McKeown said that, in common with councils up and down the country, Salisbury now depended on parking revenue for balancing it's budget. She claimed increases were modest and that the alternative would be increasing council tax further or cutting services.

The issue of parking charges was a balancing act of keeping the city economically viable while at the same improving air quality by reducing the growth in car use. She also pointed that users of the council's Zip card scheme would still be paying only £2 for park and ride.

The council voted to approve the new parking charges, which come into operation in April and will be:

  • An increase from £5 to £5.50 in all-day parking in city centre car parks.
  • On-street charges to be 50p for 15 minutes (previously 20p), £1 for 30 minutes (previously 50p), £1.50 for 45 minutes (previously £1) and £2 for 60 minutes (previously £1.50).
  • An increase in Sunday parking from £1 to £2 per visit.
  • Park and ride, up from £2 to £2.50.

However, the charge for using Culver Street car stack will remain at £4 for all-day use and there will be no extension of evening parking charges in the city.