CAMPAIGNERS are celebrating after Wiltshire County Council threw out controversial plans to introduce Sunday parking charges in Marlborough.

The decision is a snub to Kennet District Council, which wanted to press ahead with the charges despite widespread opposition in the town.

If Kennet had succeeded in getting its way, Marlborough would have become the only town in the district where motorists would have to pay to park in the town centre on Sunday.

The county council's regulatory committee delivered its verdict last Wednesday after an impassioned plea by Marlborough's county councillor Margaret Boulton, who went to the meeting together with a delegation of town councillors.

The Liberal Democrat councillor won all-party support when she pressed the committee to take no action on introducing charges until the long overdue Marlborough community area transport study is held.

It is due to take place in about two years time.

Following the meeting, Coun Boulton said: "I stressed that the majority of people in Marlborough were against the idea of paying to park on Sundays and that people in the town expected their view to be heard.

"I said that real evidence was needed, not just the perceived views of one or two councillors, before taking such a drastic step.

"Thank goodness common sense prevailed."

Coun Nick Fogg and Coun Marian Hannaford, both of them town and district councillors, were permitted to address the county council committee. Both said there was little if any support in the town for the Sunday parking charges.

Coun Fogg said among those who would be forced to pay for parking would be churchgoers who would have nowhere else to park."

The decision will be a disappointment for Kennet's leader, Coun Chris Humphries, who championed the charges and adamantly denied accusations that the district council was seeking to make money out of Marlborough's popularity.

Prior to Wednesday's meeting, he told the Gazette that if Kennet's parking proposal was put back for the transport study, the Sunday congestion in Marlborough would continue until at least 2010 by the time the study recommendations were implemented.

There was little support in Marlborough for the proposal that was opposed by the town council, the Chamber of Commerce and by one of the best attended public meetings the town had seen in several years. Kennet disregarded the local view and pressed ahead with its intention of getting charging introduced for parking in the High Street central reservation on Sundays.

The district council had, in fact, moderated its plans. A document leaked to the Gazette showed that initially it intended to charge on Sundays in the town's car parks, too.

With the strength of opposition in Marlborough to the idea, Kennet proposed that charges would only be levied in the central reservation in the High Street.

Coun Humphries and chief executive Mark Boden both contended at a public meeting in the town on October 28 that the proposal was not led by a desire to make money but for traffic management reasons.

Mr Boden said the income from charging on Sundays would be balanced out by what would have to be paid to parking wardens.

Although Kennet administers the parking in the central reservation, it is part of the highway that is controlled by the county council, which had the final say on the charges proposal.