Parking for tourists could be double local fee

Julian Brazil says the planned two-tier parking fee system will be fair

There are plans to increase parking charges for visitors and tourists across 20 or more public car parks in Devon.

South Hams District Council has decided to introduce higher fees for non-residents from April 2025.

Visitor parking fees could be double the amount paid by residents but a final decision on the prices is yet to be made.

The authority will be one of the first in England to introduce a two-tier parking fee policy across its car parks.

The leader of South Hams District Council, Julian Brazil, has told the BBC the extra money collected was needed to pay for waste collection, keeping leisure centres open, looking after the beaches and streets.

He said every local household would be able to register two cars to park at the local rate.

Any other vehicle in the household would have to pay visitor rates.

Second homeowners and people staying in self-catering accommodation will not get the residents’ rate for parking, he said.

"I think it’s a fair way of doing it," Mr Brazil continued.

"Obviously, no-one likes putting up charges or taxes but in the end they [visitors] put a lot of stress on all the services during the summer.

"Thousands of extra people visit the South Hams during the summer, that’s strain on the bins, the beaches, the street scenes, I think they should pay their share."

• Listen to a BBC Radio Devon report on the plans to increase charges across public car parks in the South Hams

'Seems crazy'

James Norton, director of Toad Hall Cottages, which has 1,300 holiday lets, 500 of them in the South Hams, said: "What we should be doing as an area is enticing people down here.

He said "everyone" needed tourism "whether it’s holiday letting businesses, shops, restaurants, bars, cleaners and laundry firms".

"So giving them another reason not to be here seems crazy in my opinion."

Isabella Day, owner of the Remarkable Goldsmiths in Dartmouth, told the BBC: "It’s probably a good idea.

"Hopefully, it won’t turn tourism away because I think the sorts of people who come to Dartmouth are willing to pay parking already.

"As a person who lives here, I think it a brilliant idea because it would be better for me if I could find a space to park."

The Parking Association said it was for "individual councils to determine their parking charges in line with local needs and demand to best support their own residents and businesses as well as cater for visitors".

A decision on the exact level of fees will be decided at a later date.