PLANS to reintroduce the one hour parking charge in Salisbury will be discussed at a special meeting of Wiltshire Council’s cabinet on Friday.

The meeting, which will be held in Devizes, will consider the proposals thrashed out last week in the wake of the Journal’s Show Some Sense campaign.

The meeting will consider bringing back one hour parking at a cost of £1.50 and raising the cost of two hours parking to £2.50.

If the new charges are accepted by councillors, the earliest they will come into effect is Monday, September 19.

The council says it needs four weeks to make the necessary changes to pay and display machines, information posters, its website, the telephone payment system MiPermit, and parking wardens’ hand held computers.

It will also need to go through a Traffic Regulation Order process.

Amending a traffic order would normally take a minimum of 14 weeks but officers say the process can be fast tracked because only one and two hour parking in Salisbury is affected.

A report to cabinet members said the changes could be made through the council’s “well being power” which is there to “improve the economic, social and environmental well being of Wiltshire”.

It states: “This report is being brought to cabinet in light of the need to respond to the expressed public desire in Salisbury to reintroduce a one hour parking charge as quickly as possible.

“Indeed, the principal of a one hour charge in Wiltshire towns is well established in the LTP car parking strategy.”

About 7,000 people signed a petition calling for the reintroduction of the one hour parking charge as part of the Journal’s Show Some Sense campaign.

Many traders said the minimum two hour charge was ruining their business as people were put off from popping into town.

Last week two meetings were held in Salisbury where business leaders, residents, traders, local councillors and the city’s MP John Glen discussed parking, before the council came up with the £1.50 and £2.50 charges, which must get the agreement of the cabinet tomorrow.

The council has claimed that the measures will cost it £540,000 over a year although the report admits it “could be less” and “some shortfall due to user levels has already occurred”.

There are currently no plans to reduce the all-day parking charge from £7.40 although this will be discussed in the autumn.

The cabinet meeting will be in the council chamber at Browfort, Devizes, at 9.30am.

*NICK Clegg has joined in the criticism of Wiltshire Council’s parking charge policy.

The deputy prime minister was visiting Chippenham last Tuesday. Despite charges there being much lower than in Salisbury, there have been protests from traders who fear that it could turn into a ghost town.

He said he appreciated that there was huge local concern, and said: “I’m all for councils having the power to do what they want, but the aim has got to be to keep the economic lifeblood of our towns and communities going, and it’s self-defeating to whack up charges of whatever kind in a way which then chases away business from the very communities you’re trying to serve.”