CAR parks in the Calstock parish could be taken over and run by the parish council, leading to reduced parking charges in Gunnislake, following a decision by councillors last week.

Calstock parish councillors agreed in principle to lease the four car parks — Gunnislake, Harrowbarrow and two in Calstock — from Cornwall Council, after a presentation by Cllr Dick Hoile on behalf of the parish council's car park working party.

Cllr Hoile said the working party had been in discussions with Cornwall Council about the possibility of taking over the car parks and was looking for the support of the parish council to be able to take negotiations further.

The idea would be to lease the car parks from Cornwall Council so the maintenance and running costs would be paid for by the parish council but any major works would be carried out by the local authority.

The main car park in Gunnislake is the only car park out of the four that charges for parking — it is currently free to park between 9am and 10am but 40p after that for an hour's parking and £1.20 for one to two hours.

Cllr Hoile said: 'Because of the car park management in Gunnislake, people are not using the car park enough when going to the shops or the health centre.

'The car park is very underused and instead there are lots of cars parked up the roads.'

He said if the council was to take over the management, Gunnislake car park would be free for the first two hours with no return within four hours. An all day ticket would cost £3.

'Most people could manage to do what they need to in that time, whether it is to go to the doctor's or go to the shops,' he said.

There would be no machine to pay for parking, instead tickets would be issued from Gunnislake Post Office.

There would also be annual residents' permits available as well as permits for people who work in Gunnislake and health centre staff.

The residents' permits would be allocated to a house rather than to a vehicle, which would mean the permit could be used by any member of the household or by visitors to the house.

Cllr Dorothy Kirk asked how Gunnislake car park would be policed to ensure people were not staying longer than two hours. Cllrs were told that there would be an enforcement officer from Cornwall Council who would visit the car park and issue tickets, but negotiations had to be had with the county council as to how often the officer will visit.

It was also asked if there would be any reason that Cornwall Council would not agree to the parish council taking over the car parks, to which Cllr Hoile said: 'I think Cornwall Council would like to encourage local communities to manage their own car parks where possible.'

Parish councillors agreed in principle to the scheme and now the working party will continue discussions with Cornwall Council to sort out the details with a view to taking over the car parks in April.