WAVERLEY Borough Council has confirmed that parking charges will not be increased in any of its car parks for the next two years.

Ged Hall, a Waverley ward member and deputy leader, who is also a town councillor, said: “Haslemere Town Council wanted to raise parking charges for commuters and lower them for shoppers – but that is not something Waverley can do as it doesn’t want to disadvantage any drivers.

“Increasing charges is only something to do if it really has to be done.

“Otherwise it’s not fair on communities.”

Waverley has agreed the town council’s proposals will be considered as part of the process of forming its borough-wide car parking strategy for beyond 2019/20.

Haslemere’s proposals were intended to pressure commuters to use the car parks at and near the station.

The town council proposed increasing the all-day charge at Weydown Road from £5 to £6 and for Tanners Lane car park to be used predominantly by shop workers at a specially reduced annual season ticket rate.

At the same time, the council wanted to change the charges for short stays in Chestnut Avenue, so that two hours would be the ‘minimum’ period for parking and costs £1 to attract more footfall.

The council hoped the season tickets at Tanners Lane could be transferable between employees of the same establishment, because Haslemere Chamber of Trade was confident the season tickets would be appreciated by local business –and would attract a good take up from the town.

Chamber president Craig McGowan said: “The chamber is pushing for a scheme to allow local businesses to buy an annual ticket in the car park at around the £450-£500 level which was roughly equivalent to the scheme the chamber was hoping to put into effect in the Collingwood and Batchellor car park a few years ago.”

The council’s freeze on parking charges will stay in place throughout the 2018/19 and 2019/20 financial years, Waverley confirmed last week.