Council's £10 permit plan for free parking

DRIVERS are signing up in their hundreds to take part in a South Hams parking experiment which will give them free parking privileges in council-owned car parks across the district.
With a special new £10 permit, resident car owners will be able to park free of charge from 4pm in the afternoon until 10am the next morning.

Letters went out to homes across the district explaining the pilot scheme and how it works just over a fortnight ago.

In the last five days, more than 500 people have applied for them, revealed the council's resources director Mark Seymour.
"So far there seems to be significant enthusiasm from people wanting to take up the offer," he said.

The concessionary car parking offer for residents of the South Hams is aimed at giving local people a better parking deal and boosting trade in the main shopping centres by encouraging people to do their shopping there rather than head off to out of town shopping centres where the parking is free.

The move comes on top of the district council's decisions to freeze car parking charges across all its car parks at this year's fees and to aim for a zero rise in its share of the council tax for the coming financial year.

The free parking scheme is the brainchild of Modbury councillor Mark Lawrence who originally proposed a scheme which simply allowed people to park for nothing between the designated times without any kind of permit fee.

He welcomed the current scheme, but suggested after the year-long experiment is over, the council could re-look at making the scheme totally free by simply handing a permit to every household in the district along with their council tax bills.

He pointed out when he had first suggested the scheme, the credit crunch and the current financial crisis had not even appeared on the horizon.

He said many people who lived near council car parks had welcomed the scheme because it meant they were able to park their vehicles off the streets.

But, he said, he hoped it would be taken up more widely by people who would use their permits to go to the towns to shop locally.

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