Controversial plans to raise car parking charges in Sidmouth halted

Controversial plans to hike car parking charges in Sidmouth have officially been halted.

Car park charges, subject to a public consultation, were set to rise from £1 to £1.20 per hour in high demand car parks across East Devon.

But the plans had angered councillors and when first discussed, 24 councillors spent two hours slamming the proposals.

The decision of the cabinet had been called in for further scrutiny, and a meeting at end of October saw them ask the cabinet not to proceed with the consultation until the work of a Task and Finish Forum which has been set up has been completed and a full report is submitted back to cabinet.

East Devon District Council's cabinet last Wednesday unanimously agreed to adopt that recommendation.

A motion had already been agreed by full council that meant 'Car Parking Strategy' had been added to the current list of 12 discretionary areas of the Policy Framework whereby full council and not the cabinet makes the decision.

Leader of the council, councillor Ben Ingham, said at last week's meeting that they accepted the scrutiny committee findings.

As of yet, no target date for when the Task and Finish Forum will finish their work is known.

The car parks that the price rises would have affected were the Lace Walk short stay car park in Honiton, West Street short stay car park in Axminster, Orchard car park in Seaton, Central car park short stay in Beer, Rolle Mews car park in Budleigh Salteron, Ham East, Ham West, Roxburgh and Mill Street in Sidmouth, and the London Inn, Imperial Road and Queens Drive car parks in Exmouth

Other proposals that would have seen free parking ended in eight car parking, and night-time parking introduced in 12 car parks had already been dropped by the cabinet.