Despite the SNP administration making a pledge to stop charging people for parking their cars for periods of two hours and under, South Ayrshire Council has made over £30,000 from parking charges in three months.

UWS Newsroom spoke to Derek McCabe, a South Ayrshire Council member for the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, to ask him for his views on the matter.

He said: “I do not have a problem with parking fees as a revenue generator, as long as the money goes back into roads and transport issues. I hate getting parking tickets, but overall I am OK with it. Did the SNP promise to scrap them? Well, they promise a lot of things. Proposing is one thing, but delivering is something else.”

The councillor does not believe that parking charges will be scrapped anytime soon he continues: “As far as I am aware, no action has been taken. And to be honest, I doubt there ever will be, especially with a council like ours facing a £17 million deficit. I do not think they are going to cut off any revenue streams”, he elaborates before making his own proposal on parking fees.

“At certain times of the year I think they should be relaxed a bit, because we want to encourage people to come to the town. I would advocate some form of relaxation during December. People’s shopping patterns have changed.”

“The convenience of going online can far outweigh going into town on a cold, wet, miserable winter’s day trying to find somewhere to park and having to pay for it. As a council, we cannot just sit back and let it happen. Small measures can take you a long way, a small way could be relaxing parking fees for a couple of days in December.”

By Jan Spaans