Calls have been made for a disc parking scheme in Petworth to be re-examined during consultation over the introduction of charges in the town.
At a Petworth Town Council meeting the council's new chairman Ken Lintill said Chichester District Council wanted to introduce charges in its rural car parks.
He said: "It is going out to consultation which will not only be with the town council b
ut with inhabitants of Petworth and the businesses."
He said his wife, district councillor Eileen Lintill, was planning to visit Billingshurst where she believed businesses had been badly affected by the introduction of parking charges.
"My reading is we certainly don't want them, but if we have to have a scheme can we have one which helps Petworth."
Judy Howard told the council when she was a district councillor, plans were discussed to bring in a scheme which would allow free parking with a disc for two hours at the top of the town-centre car park.
Those without a disc would have to pay at the top while the bottom of the car park would remain free.
"Rather than say we don't want charging, we should put forward a scheme we are happy with, because we are going to be pressurised to do something," she warned.
Mrs Howard said there was an argument that rural areas such as Petworth and Midhurst did not enjoy the same facilities as Chichester and yet contributed towards paying for them.
At the same time: "We have been blocked from having leisure facilities here because we are told they would be 'untenable'."
Fellow councillor Tony Sneller agreed that the disc scheme was a way of ensuring people used the car park 'considerably and sensibly'.
"We need to make sure the top end is available for short-term parking and the bottom end is for people parking all day."
He pointed out many of the people who complained the most about parking were business people who were guilty of parking all day at the top end of the car park, taking up space which should be left for short-term shoppers.
Town councillors agreed to write to CDC emphasising their wish to discuss disc parking and to ask for a meeting with officers.
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