PARKING prices are set to rise in the spring after roads bosses decided to hike up the cost.

Test Valley Borough Council has confirmed it will increase parking rates in all of its car parks across the borough by 11 per cent from April 1.

The above-inflation hike has met with anger from business leaders who say that parking is already high for many of the workers who park their cars in town every day.

While TVBC has called the rises "minor" and said half of drivers were already putting £1 in machines to park for an hour anyway, businesses are unconvinced.

The changes come after a four-year freeze on parking fares.

Pictures: Is this the worst parking in Hampshire?

It means parking for an hour will rise from 90p to £1, with 30 minutes costing 50p, up from 45p.

All day parking in a short or medium stay car park will increase from £5.50 to £5.90 while parking for five hours of more in long stay car parks will increase from £4.10 to £4.40 for those staying all day.

At the Romsey Rapids it will remain free for the first four hours from Monday to Saturday (previously to Friday) but will increase from £2 to £2.10 for all-day parking.

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Samantha Price, who owns Romsey Dental Care thought the parking fees were “quite expensive already”.

She added that while she and the other staff at her practice earn above-average wages, she feared how much this would hurt people in other businesses.

“It’s not going to affect me like it does affect my staff. I’m sure there’s a lot of shops who have employees working on minimum wage. People will still pay to park here but you have got to have the staff to fill the shops.”

Greg Davies, owner of Bradbeers department store denounced the 11 per cent increase as “above inflation” while the town lost footfall over the years due to the internet and retail parks.

He said: “The council shouldn’t be looking at what other councils charge, it’s got nothing to do with that, it’s about the marketplace, it’s about encouraging people to come into town.

“It’s right to charge because if you don’t you won’t get the turnover of spaces. It’s getting that charge right. We’re competing with out of town retail park and that’s an issue.”

The Advertiser revealed last week that TVBC collected more than £55,000 last year through its machines not giving change.

Peter Spiers, president of the Romsey Chamber of Commerce hoped this could be spent on providing more parking spaces.

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He said he didn’t think the increase was unreasonable but though it would affect workers more than shoppers.

“It’s a little bit concerning that it’s the workers, the people who have to come into town to work and park are being impacted but it might well make them look for alternative parking of which there’s quite a bit around the town where you can park all day,” he said.

Shopper and mum-of-two Anna Reid, from Stockbridge, said: “I don't like paying to park at the best of times so this just puts me off even more.

“No wonder online shopping is increasing year after year if this is how councils treat us, I feel sorry for the town centre retailers.

"People aren't getting pay rises of 11 per cent, so it's disproportionate."

Town centre manager Mark Edgerley said: “I don’t like the fact that they’re putting the prices up but I don’t think it’s unreasonable that they have. I don’t think the small increase will impact on the shopper.

“The people it will have an impact on are the people that work in the town who have to pay the charges every day. If you’re on a low income in a shop that could have an effect.”

He added that he was glad to see that there were no plans to interfere with the free parking after 4pm and on Sundays and bank holidays.

Test Valley Borough Council planning policy and transport portfolio holder, Councillor Martin Hatley, said: “When reviewing the parking charges, we found that almost half of people paying to park for one hour were already putting in £1 instead of 90 pence. We took this into account when setting the new charges as we wanted to make it easier for people to pay the correct amount for their stay where possible.

“The revised charges will continue to be favourable when compared with neighbouring authorities, and nationally with other authorities with a similar retail offer. This ensures that parking in Test Valley continues to be, in general, the cheapest in the local area.

He added that the income from car parks is used to cover the cost of management, patrolling and maintenance of all the council’s designated car parking spaces.

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