PLANS to raise on-street parking charges have been defended because the £4 million in cash raised is vital for funding a host of highway-related schemes, including bus routes and verge cutting.

Six Liberal Democrat councillors had collaborated on a bid to challenge a decision by their own cabinet member that proposed raising parking fees by up to 50 per cent.

Members of a key Devon County Council scrutiny committee heard the arguments from those opposed to the on-street parking rises, but opted to stick with them, most notably because of the income.

Councillor Jacqueline Fry (Reform UK, Newton Abbot North) told the committee she ‘strongly opposes the increases’ as she thought the hikes would ‘unfairly impact rural communities and low-income residents’ who rely on cars due to poor public transport.

She said: ‘Many are burdened by fuel costs, caused partly by road diversions, and higher parking fees only worsen this.

‘In many areas, parking is unavoidable and this will hit people on low incomes, the elderly and disabled residents, as well as small businesses and their customers.

‘I urge the committee to consider the impacts on people’s budgets and wellbeing.’

Councillor David Cox (Liberal Democrat, Teignmouth) – one of the six councillors who called the decision in – backed the fears about the impact on residents’ finances.

He said: ‘I appreciate car parking charges are a small part of a cumulative effect.

‘I think we need to look at the charges and the cumulative effect on the high street and on residents, as we are here for the people of Devon and I would ask that we re-examine the charges and the policy of linking them to off-road charges imposed by districts.’

Cllr Cox added the cost-of-living crisis was having an impact on high streets, including those in his division and particularly on small businesses.

The council stressed increasing parking charges were “not revenue raising”, meaning it doesn’t set them with an eye to boosting council coffers, and that the policy being proposed was an existing one pre-dating the current administration.

Crucially, the committee heard, on-street parking charges help fund subsidies for many of Devon’s bus routes, and go towards maintaining parking-related signs and road lines, maintenance of verges and grass cutting, road safety improvements, maintaining park and rides, and contributing towards the upkeep of public parks, like Stover Country Park.

Councillor Dan Thomas (Liberal Democrat, South Brent and Yealmpton), the cabinet member for highways, said any surplus funds from on-street parking charges had to be used on ‘very specific areas related to improving transport’ and could not be redirected elsewhere.

The council’s existing policy states charges will be reviewed every two years, however, the previous administration did not make the scheduled changes last year, which Cllr Thomas said added pressure to the need to activate increases now, or the gap between on and off-street parking would become too great.

He also stressed the county council’s rises are directly influenced by district council parking charge rises, meaning hikes by district councils almost inevitably lead to higher on-street charges.

But he added in spite of the forthcoming rises, free parking for 30-minutes was still available in some places in Devon, and that some examples of a 50 per cent rise only equated to a 50p increase.

While the charges will go ahead, the corporate infrastructure and regulatory services scrutiny committee did request the cabinet review the policy, specifically to look at the frequency of future car parking charge adjustments as well as the maximum price cap.