Southwick Country Park parking charges could be introduced in September

Wiltshire Council has admitted that the costs of introducing the charges would be high, so it will firstly "Explore the possibility of an asset transfer / service delegation of the facility to the local community before 3 September 2018. If not possible, introduce the proposed pay and display parking charges and season ticket charges to mitigate the cost of operation. (Operation - MiPermit only)."

Fees will be: 1hr £0.80, 2hr £1.30, 3hr £2.70, 4hr £3.10, 5hr £4.20, All Day £5.30.

Season tickets: £636 (per annum), £318 (6 months), £159 (3 months), £53 (1 month)

WC says, "The facility needs considerable investment. The cost of provision will not be met by the proposed charges income. Increasing the proposed charges further could make parking prohibitive."

Which translated into English means: "This is a bad idea but we're going to do it anyway."

As pointed out by people who responded to the recent consultation, parking charges at Southwick would lead to more people leaving their cars on the main road, as happens occasionally at busy times at the moment.

A full report on new parking charges across Wiltshire is in the January Environment Committee agenda item 7