Darlington shoppers struggling to pay for parking, council told

It comes after two hours of free parking was scrapped to save the council money

A town centre's ailing parking system has been criticised amid concerns visitors are struggling to pay for their stays, a council has heard. 

Information on meters in Darlington has been labelled outdated, some do not take cards, and visitors are forced to ask local businesses for change.

It comes after two hours of free parking was scrapped by the council on 3 July to save the authority money.

Labour's Chris McEwan said it had to be "easy" for people to pay for parking.

The issue was raised by Conservative Pauline Culley who called on the authority - run as Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition - to improve the service. 

Labour had said there was "no provision" to continue the free parking offer - brought in by the former Conservative administration - after it reviewed the council's budget.

The council has been asked to introduce an incentive to park in the town centre

It said it would cost the local authority an additional £1.7m per year in lost revenue, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

"Many businesses commented that they had noticed already that footfall was down since bringing in the parking charges and some feel their customers will now use nearby retail parks instead," Ms Culley said. 

"Businesses have asked if the Labour and Lib Dem partnership could help them keep afloat and compromise by looking at offering one hour free or some other incentive to entice people back into town."

'Parking app pain'

More than 2,000 people have signed a petition from the town's Tory MP Peter Gibson calling on the local authority to keep the two hours free parking offer.

Mr McEwan, cabinet member for economy, said multiple parking apps used by car parks also caused confusion.

"It's the worst pain in the world having to download another app, so it is something we're looking at," he added.

"I haven't got the answers but I will have a discussion about how we can progress that."