REDUCED parking charges in three Dorset coastal car parks from July 1st could be cost neutral – with the help of a good summer.

But opposition Conservative councillors say they are concerned at the likely loss of income and how the decision was taken.

The Lib Dems, who have cut maximum charges from £15 to £9 a day for an experimental period at three car parks in Weymouth, West Bay and Lyme Regis say the forgone income might amount to between £250,000 and £300,000.

Finance portfolio holder Cllr Simon Clifford says £100,000 will be made up by the decision to scrap “lead councillor” roles created by the previous Conservative administration.

“With a half-decent summer there could be no loss. Bring on the sun,” said Cllr Clifford.

No account in the calculation has been made of the added visitors that the reduced charges could attract when holidaymakers and weekenders are deciding where to spend their hard-earned cash. Cutting car park charges in summer could be a powerful draw to visitors deciding where to travel to.

Compared to some other areas, notably Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and city centre parking across the region, £9 a day now looks relatively cheap and may tempt more visitors to the area.

On a more pessimistic outlook, with less-good summer weather, forgone income could amount to around £1million over the four-month period although the calculation behind this is unlikely to be accurate with too many variables.

The lower prices will only apply to the Swannery car park at Weymouth; Charmouth Road at Lyme Regis and West Bay Road at West Bay.

Other town centre car parks at the three resort towns will remain as previously agreed with the higher summer charges of a maximum fee of £15 while none of the market towns, where rates are lower, will see any change.

The Dorset Council opposition Conservative group say they remain concerned about the loss of income and the decision to take £2million from reserves to help pay for hardship programmes.

Said a Conservative Party group spokesperson: “The LibDem group committed in their election pledges to reversing the car park charges in seaside locations to the previous rate. This was surprising, as many LibDems voted for our budget which included this critical income.

This experiment may result in reduced income on top of the LibDem decision to spend £2m of reserves.

Throughout our administration such decisions were inclusive, normally going to Cabinet or Council, giving the opportunity for scrutiny and member involvement.  Our car parking decisions were based on evidence and comparisons.

Our approach to this trial will of course be one of constructive scrutiny - but we are concerned about the impact on the budget and more importantly inland locations across Dorset, for whom the policy was intended to make charging fairer.”

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has worked out that a total of 1,634 car parking spaces will be subject to the lower charge over 123 days from July 1st.  The largest car park, the Swannery has 915 spaces, West Bay 438 and Charmouth Road, Lyme Regis 281.

If each were full of cars all paying the maximum charge the daily income at the previous rate would have been £24,510 which would drop to £14,706 under the lower charges. Over the whole period this equates to a maximum forgone income of £1,205,892.

In reality the car parks are seldom totally full and there is much movement in and out with some staying only for short periods of time: this ‘churn’ rate makes any predictive calculation unlikely to be accurate and, with variable weather, more so.