THERE will be no changes to the car parking charges for Launceston’s multi-storey car park in the next financial year.

The town council’s finance and general purposes committee resolved at its meeting on October 3 there would be no changes to the charges for the Westgate Street car park for the financial year 2019-2020.

The minutes from this meeting were expected to be ratified by the full town council at its meeting on Tuesday night, after the Post went to press.

Elsewhere, it was reported last week that parking charges in Cornwall Council car parks could jump five times higher in some places under plans to introduce a new system — but the local authority said at the end of last week a table published on its website called ‘proposed new charges’ was ‘incorrectly titled’.

The local authority is carrying out a comprehensive review of parking charges across all of its pay and display car parks with an aim of having a more simplified charging structure.

Currently there are a number of different parking tariffs in operation so the council has drawn up a new set of seven bands for car parks to operate under.

But the table put on the local authority’s website ahead of the council’s economic growth and development overview and scrutiny committee on Tuesday, October 16, does not show the proposed new charges. An email circulated to councillors on behalf of Cllr Geoff Brown, cabinet portfolio holder for transport, and shown to the Post, read: “The table was produced to give the committee and members an indication as to how the fees might look if applied through a zoning approach rather than the … different charges in place across Cornwall. Clearly there is work to do in consideration of zoning fees and which zone is applied to specific car parks.”

It also stated a full statutory consultation would take place, in relation to any proposed changes to the Cornwall Council Off-Street Parking Place Order, and that this consultation will last for eight weeks — five weeks longer than the statutory period — to accommodate local meetings with members and stakeholders, attended by the parking service manager and portfolio holder.

The proposed tariff methodology includes introducing 30-minute stay tickets for all Cornwall Council’s car parks.

Cllr Brown has said: “Clearly there is work to do in looking at zoning fees and which zone might apply to specific car parks.

“No fee changes could be made until a full public consultation has been carried out.”

This committee was set to meet on Tuesday, October 16, after the Post went to press. No indication has been given for when any changes could be introduced.