SUPPORT has been given to introducing on-street parking charges in Tavistock town centre, following a questionnaire issued by the chamber of commerce.

The chamber said it was extremely pleased that 83 of the 140 questionnaires to businesses in the town were returned and of those responses, 73% were in favour of the idea in principle.

The results will be discussed with West Devon car parking strategy group in the hope of finding a solution to tackling the problems of people parking all day in the one-hour parking bays.

A survey was compiled after it came to light that many businesses were feeling disgruntled by the parking situation. Their view was that the turnover of cars was not what it should be and hence their shops and offices were losing out.

But when the Times spoke to traders in Brook Street and Duke Street, some took the opposite view, saying on-street parking would drive people away from the town to the supermarkets where the parking was free.

Chamber chairman Nigel Eadie said this week the questionnaire was done to find out if there was a problem and what suggestions people had.

'Almost all of the people who responded were appreciative of the fact that someone was looking into this and they have come back with quite extensive comments,' he said.

'For example, some said car parking charges should only apply between the hours of 9.30am and 3.30pm to encourage people to come in during the early morning or late afternoon.

'We are at the very early stages and we will be meeting with West Devon's car parking strategy group to show them our initial findings. It will be up to councillors to decide what to do next.'

He said the chamber had no blueprint for fixing the problem.

'Some of the ideas that have come forward are worthy of discussion and consideration.

'We have to have a fairly creative and imaginative approach towards the situation, not just charge people willy-nilly.'

The ultimate aim was to encourage more people to use the town and make it easier to access the shops, said Mr Eadie.

Fifty per cent of businesses were also in favour of a rebate scheme whereby customers were refunded their parking charge by traders if they spent over £5 and the money recouped from the council.

On-street parking charges and a rebate scheme had worked successfully in Totnes.

Although parking bays through the Tavistock's main street were restricted to one hour, this was being abused by drivers because of the lack of enforcement, according to the chamber, which claims that four enforcement officers covering the whole of West Devon is not enough.

The parking charges suggested for the town centre were 20p for 30 minutes and 40p for one hour.