CONTROVERSIAL proposals to introduce car parking charges in Hatherleigh and Chagford have been put on hold for further investigation.

West Devon Borough Council will discuss the proposals again on March 21 but a full consultation will have to be undertaken before any charges are introduced.

Borough councillor for Chagford Peter Hill said if any changes were made they would not happen for some time.

'There will be no time to introduce the charges in time for April' he said.

'But that is not to say it will not happen this year. If charges are introduced it will be a serious problem for Chagford.'

Mr Hill said the free car park had been there since the early 1960s and was used by residents and tourists alike.

'Officers may believe they can get the money from tourists but that is not necessarily the whole picture.'

He said the doctors' surgery was at the end of the car park and no allowance had been made for the people attending or working at the site who used the car park.

It has been estimated that car parking charges would bring in £34,000 from Chagford and £11,000 from Hatherleigh. The cost to set up a pay and display scheme in the 70-space car parks would be £11,000.

Dennis Bater who represents Hatherleigh on the borough council said motorists would avoid the councils' car parks 'like the plague' if charges were introduced.

He said at the moment people came into Hatherleigh from nearby villages because it was easy and free. But he said they would go elsewhere if people then had to pay to park and then trade would suffer.

Problems with people parking along the streets in Hatherleigh would surely increase if this change came in, said town clerk Gina Lane.

Mrs Lane said it had taken the town council and school governors about five years to get parents to park in the free car park and not on the streets.

'People are not going to pay 40p to park — it's just going to make the problem worse,' she said.