Southend evening parking charge could be scrapped by summer break

Southend Council plans to scrap or suspend evening parking charges in time for the summer holidays

Parking charges could be scrapped in time for the school summer holidays, Southend Council has announced.

The Conservative administration is honouring a pledge to scrap an 18:00 to 21:00 parking charge, over fears it would hit seafront traders and deter visitors.

The council said it expected the charges to be removed or suspended by the beginning of the school holidays.

It was previously free to park in the area after 18:00.

Plans to introduce a charge for parking in several of the city's parks are also being shelved, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Kevin Buck, councillor responsible for highways, transport and parking, said: "There's a legal process that has to be gone through to remove them completely but what we can do as a local authority is introduce a temporary suspension to the charges while the final process is completed."

Work is also under way to end a 10p administration charge for using the Mobon parking app to stay in the city's car parks.

Mr Buck said: "That's still being worked on and the intention is that will go at some point as soon as we can."

The council is set to create more than 100 new parking spaces, including some free ones in roads off the High Street.

Mr Buck said these would help to offset any potential losses from the scrapped charges.