REDUCING parking fees will be explored as a way of getting more people to use West Devon Borough Council's car parks, after councillors were told that income had dropped by £60,000.

The council's community services committee last week agreed to continue to suspend its car parking strategy to talk to individual towns and parishes about suitable tariffs. It means that car parking charges will be frozen for the third year running.

Work will be undertaken in time for the 2014/15 budget review to see whether a reduction in charges would result in the higher use of car parks.

The only car park where income increased over the past year is Chagford.

The charges, which allow for an extra free hour of parking first thing in the morning, were reviewed at the request of the town.

Councillors were told that some of the decreases were down to the poor summer weather.

Tavistock councillor Alison Clish-Green said the council should look at charging different fees in the summer and winter.

'When visitors come to Tavistock they follow the car park signs and look for car parks but people who know the town park elsewhere,' she said.

The income from the Bedford Car Park in Tavistock was down on the previous year by more than £13,000 and The Wharf by over £11,000. Market Street Car Park in Okehampton was down by over £16,000 but Mill Road suffered less with a decrease of £1,844.

Cllr Robert Oxborough, chairman of the community services committee, said: 'We work very hard to keep car parking charges at the very lowest they can be, which is why these charges have been frozen by the council for the last two years and again for the forthcoming 12 months.

'In this very tough economic climate, where the borough council is currently trying to bridge a budget gap of around £355,000, reducing car parking charges would not be fair to our council tax payers.

'They rightly expect the council to make the most of its assets and charge a reasonable tariff in its car parks in order that increases to council tax bills can be kept to a minimum.

'In the meantime, we continue to work in partnership with our communities on this issue. We are in talks with some town organisations to come up with new initiatives to give better value for money in our car parks and hopefully we will be in a position to announce these plans very soon.'

Tavistock Chamber of Commerce chairman Nigel Eadie said there was no simple solution but an idea which had been mentioned before and which worked up and down the country was a barrier system where people paid on exit.

'It allows people to stay a little longer without having to return to the car park. People may think about staying longer but once they walk back to the car park they usually go.

'A barrier system would bring in lots more revenue I am sure.

'The notion of doing the same and freezing car parking charges is not really going to work. Revenue is diminishing and we now need to look at a different approach.'

Adam Fleet from Tavistock BID said he hoped the borough's decision to suspend the parking strategy would lead to a positive impact on the high street as well as on the overall parking income for the council.  

'We consider the borough council as a positive partner in sustaining and rejuvenating the high street,' he said.

'At present we are negotiating a free parking trial in Brook Street car park to encourage more people into the town.'