Car parking changes that opponents say “permanently damage small and local businesses” are to be kept in place for at least another six months despite thousands signing two petitions calling on price hikes and stricter time limits to be dropped.

Surrey Heath Borough Council (SHBC) changed its parking charges in April with the aim of raising money for safety maintenance work. The council took the decision to generate the cash by levying motorists rather than taxpayers.

It reasoned that, as parking was a discretionary service, it could not justify draining resources when overall funding was so low. The petitions, calling for the scale of changes to be dialled back gained 158 and 1,808 signatures respectively.

Speaking to the full meeting of SHBC on September 18, was Councillor Josh Thorne (Conservative Party; St Pauls) speaking on behalf of Louise Grainger.

Her petition said it was “completely inappropriate to introduce new and increased” parking charges. 

Additionally, the council “should be looking at trying to draw in the public from the wider area and not give them the same problem with high car park prices which will just keep them going somewhere closer at the same or a cheaper price.”

Cllr Thorne said: “If our small community shopping areas have parking fees attached to them they would disintegrate as they can not compete with the large retail parks who do have free parking.”

The council argues that there has been no significant impact on footfall since the changes but that it needed to collect a full year’s worth of data before a clearer picture emerged.

Cllr Alan Ashbery, lead member for homes, planning and enforcement also questioned whether support for the petitions would have been as strong had the wording been different. 

What if the question was ‘would people be prepared to pay 20p extra an hour to have safely lit car parks, or to have surfaces repaired to help parents with push buggies?’, he asked.

He said: “There is a woeful level of repair work with an urgent need to fix the sites or risk their closure.”

The meeting heard that there was “no question of introducing charges for the valued public sites” such as Chobham Place Woods car park but “the money for the vital repair works needed to come from somewhere”.

He said: “We do not operate in a vacuum and we do not set our parking charges on a whim.

“Our charges are neither the most expensive nor the cheapest in the surrounding area but represent a competitive offering to our residents.”

He added: “Placing the costs for the overdue investments in our car parks onto the council tax payer rather than the car parks users would in my opinion would …be irresponsible.”

Closing these car parks, the meeting heard, was not an option and therefore the money for the repairs had to be found from somewhere.

Further reviews into the impact of the changes are set to be taken in November and April to judge the impact on revenue and footfall.