'Muddle' claim over parking for shoppers

Scarborough Council has agreed to waive fees on many of its off-street car parks on selected days in the run up to the festive season to help hard-pressed families and traders.

But Coun Nick Harvey argues the decision could hit charge payers in the pocket by undermining the town's 4.5m park and ride scheme, by starving the service of passengers on some of the busiest days of the year.

The town hall has been offering free Christmas parking since 1998. But Coun Harvey objects this was before more than 4.5m was spent building two Park and Ride sites in the resort. Last year the service cost a further 593,443.29 to operate – paid for from on-street car park revenue to the tune of 1,634.83 per day, he added.

He continued: "It is a huge amount of money that few councillors, let alone motorists know they are paying for when they park a car on Scarborough's streets. As a councillor I look to save tax payers money. There is no need to pay twice – it should either be free parking in Scarborough or Park and Ride, not both."

He added: "The free Christmas parking in Scarborough then extracts passengers from the Park and Ride services. Far from being integrated, local transport is uncoordinated and council policies conflict rather than integrate transport."

Head of Technical Services John Riby said: "As part of a positive approach to helping the town centre economy in both Scarborough and Whitby in the lead up to Christmas it is believed that the offer of free parking on selected days will provide an added incentive and hopefully discourage people from travelling to areas out of town offering a better arrangement and will assist local businesses during this difficult economic climate."