MAKING car parks free to use until 11am would help Ceredigion businesses, a meeting heard last week.

Members of a council scrutiny committee said that providing free parking for motorists at council car parks between 8am and 11am would boost trade. But Cabinet members have said they need to see evidence that it won’t hit the council’s parking i

ncome.

The recommendation for allowing free parking until 11am was one of 21 made by the scrutiny committee.

But council leader Ellen ap Gwynn said officers needed to examine how much income the council could miss out on before agreeing to the move.

An initial proposal had been that charging for car parking would start at 11am and run until 10pm.

But members of the thriving communities scrutiny committee said the suggestion to keep charging between 6pm and 10pm had been abandoned as it could hit residents who use council car parks to park near their home outside of the charging period.

However, committee members insisted a period of free parking in the morning should be considered.

Cllr Elizabeth Evans said: “We shouldn’t be looking at charging until 10pm as it was ruled out at the scrutiny committee. We should though be looking at two hours of free parking. These proposals from the scrutiny committee will see you making money and with that I strongly believe that free parking until 11am will not cost us as a council and will help our town centres.”

Cllr John Adams Lewis said he was aware that traders in Cardigan would welcome a period of free parking and urged Cabinet members to consider a free spell, even if it wasn’t until the proposed 11am.

He added: “That is what traders in Cardigan want to help them out.”

While Cabinet members backed a proposal to freeze parking charges for 2016/17, they also supported efforts to increase the use of season tickets and introduce new three-month and nine-month season tickets.

Transport Cabinet member Alun Williams said season tickets would offer cheaper parking for local residents and workers.

Other proposals backed by the Cabinet will see caravans banned from council car parks and charges at Aberystwyth’s North Promenade and New Quay’s Rock Street become seasonal again.