Plans to hike some car parking charges in West Devon to increase turnover in car parks and give better availability of parking for visitors and shoppers have been temporarily shelved due to the coronavirus crisis, writes local democracy reporter Daniel Clark.

West Devon Borough Council was due to approve changes to parking tariffs in its car parks at its virtual meeting on Tuesday morning based on a pay and display review that had previously been carried out.

The changes would have seen Abbey Car Park in Tavistock change from a long stay to a short stay car park and an increase in parking charges in the majority of the long stay car parks in the district.

But Cllr Terry Pearce, lead member for communities, recommended that the decision should be deferred to a later meeting in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

He said: ‘We had been working with officers on this and prepared it for our March meeting but now is not the time to consider this. Given we are supporting towns and the businesses in them with free parking, we should defer this for a future meeting.’

West Devon has suspended all parking charges, the sale of new and renewal permits and enforcement activity in its car parks as a result of coronavirus to protect the workforce and members of the public at risk from the virus and make life easier for residents.

Emma Widdicombe, WDBC’s senior parking specialist, said in her report to the meeting that the motivation for the proposed changes was not to increase income but to encourage a greated turnover of parking to contribute to the vibrancy of towns in the borough.

The meeting also saw the council’s capital strategy for 2020/21 adopted but members were told that it would have to be reviewed in light of the financial difficulties the council faces as a result of Covid-19.

Lisa Buckle, the council’s head of finance, said budget monitoring reports would be presented to members on a monthly basis, rather than quarterly as traditionally has been the case, in order to keep councillors informed as the response was formulated.

Council leader Cllr Neil Jory said he and other council leaders in Devon had been trying to impress on central government how badly councils were being affected by the crisis financially and how much they had contributed to the efforts to support people and businesses who had seen livelihoods disrupted.

The first tranche of £1.6bn funding to councils received by West Devon was £29,023, and Cllr Jory said that in the second tranche, a ‘significantly larger’ portion would be going to districts, but he added ‘we await the definition of significant’.

He said: ‘Through the District Councils Network we are lobbying that the next distribution should recognise the contribution that district councils are making and their importance in starting to plan to support the economic recovery. In our view, each and every district council in the country should receive at least £1-million from this next payment.

‘Councils are facing a perfect storm. We are experiencing an increase in the demand for our services whilst our income streams are plummeting across car parking, commercial waste, cultural services and planning and licensing fees.

‘Just the loss of car parking income alone would be £1.1-million for West Devon in a financial year.

‘There is a concern that council tax and business rates income will fall as people face financial difficulties. As planning authorities we are thinking ahead to how we can drive the local recovery.’