MOST full-time workers should be spared swingeing rises in the price of parking in Bournemouth next year.

Bournemouth Borough Council is keen to avoid a repeat of the backlash which greeted plans for a major hike in charges earlier this year.

The Daily Echo's Pay and Dismay campaign helped win a climbdown from the authority over the 2001 charges.

Cllr Basil Ratcliffe, chairman of the borough's transport and works committee, said 2001 had seen "quite considerable increases which raised a lot of bad feeling and criticism".

He said the council had been meeting town centre traders to discuss the issue.

"Their opinion was that any increase should be kept as low as possible, mainly because there was no genuine alternative to anyone parking in a town centre car park," he added.

Under the new tariff, which will be subject to public consultation, the price of the longest stays in the town's "core sites" will remain unchanged at £6. But stays of six or seven hours will cost £1 more.

Long stays in other town centre car parks will rise by 10p to £3.60.

Permits will go up by 10 per cent, taking the annual price of a five-day-a-week permit to £550.

Cllr Dennis Gritt, who campaigned against big increases last year, said: "I think after last year we learned our lesson. The Echo campaign, I think, was well-run and people got on board.

"But we've learned our lessons, we've gone through the consultation with the traders in trying to understand the problems and pitfalls."

The rises in ticket prices are expected to increase the council's parking revenue by 6.5 per cent, or £350,000.

Ticket sales have fallen by up to six per cent since the last rises. Annual income had been expected to rise by 18 per cent but is now expected to increase by only 10 per cent.

Cllr David Smith pointed out that the committee was looking at making budget cuts of £250,000. "Have we really thought deeply about this charging process?" he asked.