HEFTY proposed increases in commuter and long-stay parking in Haslemere have been condemned as "short-sighted" by the town mayor.
Commenting on proposals by the Liberal Democrat-controlled Waverley Borough Council to impose a price hike of up to a third on some car park season tickets, Michael Foster said that increasing the car parking charges "would do nothing to help trade".
In a report to the decision- making executive council next Monday, councillors will hear that the proposed parking increases, could be introduced as early as November, with season ticket increases of up to £140 applying from next April.
Short-stay car parking charges are also set to rise, in some cases by up to 20 per cent.
But the steepest increases if they are agreed will be felt by commuters and drivers parking in the town's long-stay car parks in Tanners Lane and Weydown Road, where prices will rise from £420 per year to a massive £560.
Season tickets for the town's Central car park could rise by £50 to £790 under the current proposals, while in Chestnut Avenue car park an annual season ticket will remain at the current price of £450.
Short-stay parking will rise by five pence for up to three-quarters-of-an-hour in the High Street and Chestnut Avenue car parks but increase by a whopping 20 per cent to 60 pence for the first two hours in both car parks.
Mr Foster said the increased parking costs were out of step with other shopping centres in the vicinity.
"There is free parking in Midhurst and Liphook, and Aldershot is considerably cheaper," said Mr Foster.
He claimed that increasing charges would "reduce the vitality of our shopping centre, putting more parked cars on the roads".
Mr Foster said the town already suffered from commuter parking with motorists driving from as far away as Billingshurst and Horsham to commute from Haslemere Station.
And he took issue with Waverley for not informing the town council of its proposals.
"The town council should be aware of what is going on in Haslemere."
David Harmer, the leader of the minority Waverley Conservatives, questioned whether the move to increase car parking charges was a "policy change or political issue.
"It is not what we would have done," said Mr Harmer. "We filed our budget proposals in February to restrict the rise in shoppers' car parking to the rate of inflation over a four-year period.
"What was wrong with that? I don't know what the Lib Dems want the money for and I don't know why they are doing it," said Mr Harmer.
All it will do is to drive more people on to the roads," he concluded.
Waverley Lib Dem leader Chris Slyfield claimed the car- parking review was "purely proposals linked basically to the level of inflation".
And he accused the Tories of "fiddling around with categorising of car parks" while they were in office and not getting a return on them.
"We have had complaints that public funds are being used to support car parks which is not fair to the rest of the non-car users," said Mr Slyfield.
"The Conservatives wouldn't put up shoppers' car parking; this is nothing more than catch-up," said Mr Slyfield.
Asked why the car parking review had not been discussed by the environmental overview and scrutiny (O & S) committee instead of going straight to the executive for discussion, Mr Slyfield told The Herald it was because the O & S committees "were swamped with work," due to the overlap and backlog caused by last May's council elections.
However, Mr Slyfield said it could be called in by the committee.
"I would not be surprised if O & S wanted to look at it."
At the meeting on Monday, a report from Waverley will tell councillors that shoppers' car parking charges "have remained frozen since April 1998" with some exceptions.
"The cost of short-stay parking has therefore, in real terms, progressively reduced over that period," says the report.
"The proposed charges generally restore the effects of inflation."
A possible rise in car park charges is also blamed on increased costs in staff costs, energy costs for lighting and machines, and maintenance and repairs.