Powys parking: Council to increase pay-and-display charges

Parking for up to one hour in a long-stay car park will cost £1, up from 70p

Increases in parking charges across Powys are on the way to help the county council save £12m to balance its books.

Parking for up to one hour in a long-stay car park will cost £1, up from 70p, while for two hours it goes up by more than half from £1.30 to £2.

The council says it will peg the cost of an annual permit at £370, saying it offers regular users a 60% discount on the pay-and-display prices.

The extra cash raised will also help fund free parking for blue badge users.

The charge for parking a car for more than four hours is to rise from £3.20 to £4 - a 25% increase - while lorry drivers face a rise of more than 50% from £5.30 to £8.

Vehicles that take up two spaces will be expected to pay double the price, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Short-stay car parks in Powys will still charge £1 for up to an hour, but the charge for up to two hours will rise from £1.50 to £2.

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A report that laid out the options said the price of annual permits would be frozen to encourage regular users.

"Predominantly these will be people who work in a town and travel by car," it said.

"The annual cost of £370, when compared to the daily charge, will be beneficial to someone who on average parks two days per week in a pay-and-display car park."

Powys County Council has set a £200,000 savings target for the service, but predicts the new charges will raise an extra £280,000.

The authority said any extra cash would be used to offset the £100,000 cost of free parking for people with disabilities entitled to a blue badge.