THE Mayor of Marlborough, Coun Margaret Boulton, has hit out at Kennet District Council's decision to charge for parking on Sundays and bank holidays in Marlborough.

From April next year visitors to the town will have to pay to park like any other day of the week after Kennet's community development policy committee voted on Tuesday to bring in Sunday and bank holiday charging.

But, following a campaign in the Gazette and Herald, they voted to drop the recommendations of raising the hourly rate from 35p to 60p after the first two hours and making the all-day charge in the George Lane and Hyde Lane car parks £4.

The hourly charge will instead rise from 35p to 40p from April 1 next year and there will be no flat rate for all day parking.

A proposal to raise the price of a yearly season ticket from £360 to £421 was thrown out. Instead councillors voted for a rise to £382.

Coun Chris Humphries, chairman of the community development policy committee, told the meeting: "But the Conservative and Independent Group believes this is not the time to increase charges and we are proposing a revised schedule of charges."

Coun Humphries said that Marlborough's status as the centre of the tourist industry in the area meant that congestion in the town centre at weekends was a problem.

He said: "You cannot move in the High Street on a Sunday. Traders in Marlborough objected when we first brought in charging in the centre of the High Street but when they saw the good effect it was having on traffic, they welcomed it."

Later he told the Gazette: "Drivers are not being reasonable and the council has a responsibility to Marlborough to make sure traffic flows freely."

But Coun Boulton said she was bitterly disappointed Kennet had taken this decision.

She said: "We are trying to improve facilities in the town and surely this grab raid by Kennet doesn't really help matters. It is a very great pity that as we are struggling to attract people to the area they have done this. Charging for parking on a Sunday is ludicrous."