It’s proved one of the most divisive decisions by Cornwall Council in recent times. The increase in parking charges at over 130 council-owned car parks has led to anger by business leaders, fearing its impact on the already struggling high street, as well as from drivers who have noticed the impact on their wallets.

The man who inherited the parking proposals, tweaked them and put them into practice earlier this year has announced he is working on a way for people who live in Cornwall to get cheaper parking, by proving they live in the Duchy.

Cllr Connor Donnithorne, the Conservative-run council’s portfolio holder for transport, has announced there will be “significant discount” for locals on season tickets at car parks across the length and breadth of Cornwall.

He made the announcement earlier this week before it was announced today he will swap roles with Cllr Richard Pears in the council’s Cabinet. In a reshuffle, Pears will be the new portfolio holder for transport while Donnithorne will be switching from his role at transport to take over as portfolio holder for customers and digital strategy.

From May 31, Cornwall Council’s 135 pay-and-display and pay-on-foot car parks were grouped into of three ‘zones’, with Zone A being the most expensive, following changes agreed by the council’s Cabinet. The changes proved so unpopular that the council reduced some prices following a public consultation but the new tariffs have still come under attack by those who fear they are targeting the worst off and “decimating” businesses.

In many of the Duchy’s busiest car parks it now costs £2.20 to park for an hour and up to £10 for over four hours. Free parking after 4pm has now been changed to a £2 fee after 6pm which a number of town BID (business improvement districts) managers have said will affect the night-time economy of towns which are already struggling with a lack of footfall. Many places have seen free parking on Sundays scrapped too.

Cllr Donnithorne told us: “I’ve been working with a team of officers towards introducing a much larger discount for season ticket holders in Cornwall Council car parks. I know a lot of people across Cornwall get their season tickets so they can park in the car park that’s down the road. I’m looking at introducing the first ever discount where people prove their council tax status and we are going to introduce a significant discount for people buying season ticket parking spaces.”

The councillor for Redruth Central, Carharrack & St Day, who is also the Conservative candidate for the Camborne and Redruth parliamentary seat, said he was unable to say what that significant amount would be yet as the scheme was still being finalised, but “it will be the first ever essentially Cornish discount by proving you’re Cornish via your council tax”.

It’s fair to say the councillor has come in for a fair bit of stick for the tariff changes, but he argued you can’t go into politics without making difficult decisions, pointing out the annual parking shortfall of £1.5m in Cornwall in previous years.

He said: “I was appointed to Cabinet on November 1, 2022 – the first thing that came on to my desk on day one was a parking proposal that saw the majority of car parks charging £2 for the first hour. I looked at this list of places and places like Camborne, Redruth, Saltash, Callington, Liskeard and St Austell would be paying £2 for the first hour whereas car parks like Carbis Bay would be cheaper. My first battle was that I wasn’t accepting that and I immediately cut them in half to a £1.

“It’s a policy that I inherited and a policy that I immediately made changes to by cutting the parking charges almost in half and tried to put as much emphasis on supporting the towns in Cornwall that don’t see that tourist influx. Every councillor across the political divide knew that £1.5m was being lost every year in parking deficit.

“Where was that money being plugged from? Highways maintenance – the lining budget, verges, all these highways maintenance issues which people are now kicking off at which is why I’ve put an extra £9m into it [he’s just announced a capital programme of road improvements]. The easiest thing to do would be to dodge it but why the hell do you go into politics if you’re not prepared to make the difficult decisions.”

Cllr Donnithorne added: “We had an unbelievably complex system with over 135 different tariff regimes in Cornwall, which took up a huge amount of officer time, with two changes a year. Can you imagine the resource that that was taking? I think what people want are for their officers who are being paid for by council taxpayers and business rate payers to be doing a good job – if we can simplify their job then all the better because then they can focus on other priorities.

“If I didn’t feel that we had to look at parking charges I wouldn’t have done it and I’m sure my predecessor wouldn’t have done it. Every council is having to look at how they are raising income and how they’re spending it. People think car parks are used as cash cows – it’s simply untrue. We are tied by legislation that the income from our car parks has to be used for traffic management, so we had to look at rationalising it and making it simpler.”

It’s a claim that might surprise a lot of people, but Cllr Donnithorne says that car park usage has increased month to month since the tariffs went up.

He said: “It has been difficult but the very positive thing that has come out of this is that councillors were saying the high streets are going to collapse and people aren’t going to go to town centres anymore, but in the vast majority of car parks since this new parking tariff has been in place there has been overwhelming usage growth.

“More people are using our car parks under this tariff than they were in June last year. Month to month we have seen positive usage growth and we are closing that budget shortfall, which will mean I won’t have to take money from highways maintenance anymore because our car parks are washing their own faces.

“I’ve also dropped the car park charges for the winter period the car park charges for the winter period, so from November to April which is more of a local economy in Cornwall, people will be paying much cheaper car parking charges in the vast majority of car parks. Many car parks will drop a band, so the charging period and the price will go down.

“People say free parking brings people in to the town centre more, but look at most towns in Cornwall that have free parking on Sunday – it is their quietest day of the week. Price doesn’t necessarily reflect people coming in.”