SUNDAY car parking charges for Wellington and other towns across Somerset have been postponed after councillors heard 93 per cent of people who responded to public consultation were opposed to the idea.

Somerset Council’s executive was being recommended at a meeting on Wednesday (December 3) to start charging for car parks on Sundays from next April to raise £730,000 which would help with its £101 million budget shortfall.

The proposal to ‘harmonise’ car parks across the county was said to make it fairer with everybody sharing the cost of maintenance rather than some parking being free.

But massive public opposition followed by the council’s own scrutiny committee voting against the charges has now seen a change of heart.

Now, executive councillors have agreed to defer the idea until a wider policy setting out guiding principles for parking across the county has been developed and approved.

The policy will look at all elements of parking, including the role and function of on and off-street parking in Somerset towns, simplified tariff structures, payment mechanisms, and accessibility.

It will aim to provide a comprehensive and integrated framework for managing parking on a ‘more consistent basis’ to support social, environmental and economic outcomes.

Somerset executive Cllr Richard Wilkins said: “We have listened to the concerns of residents and businesses in the affected areas, and the results of the consultation clearly show how strongly people feel about this.

“There are significant inconsistencies in our approach to parking that do need to be considered now we are a single council.

“However, we need to look at the wider implications of any changes and work out what is best for the whole of Somerset.

“We will now go away and develop a county-wide parking policy principles document that we anticipate will be considered initially by our climate and place scrutiny committee in January.”