ANGRY town councillors are to lobby Kennet District Council to reduce the proposed increase in charges at the Station Road car park.

The hourly charge is set to rise from 15p to 35p and the all day charge will go up 80p to £1.50 from next April. Season tickets are also due to increase substantially.

A majority of councillors on the community committee agreed to press Kennet to limit the hourly rate rise to 5p and said the all-day rate should not rise above £1.

Coun Noel Woolrych said: "The whole concept of Station Road car park was that it would be the first line of attack for vehicles coming into the town and it was always the cheapest car park. It is not always full to capacity, even on Thursdays (market day), and it is supposed to encourage people to use it for long term parking."

Coun Margaret Taylor said: "Nobody's going to go there if the charge is 35p an hour, that is going to be really prohibitive. People will drive round the town looking for car parking out of desperation not to pay the sum."

Coun Ian Hopkins said the rise was "short sighted" as Devizes was trying to compete with neighbouring towns for shoppers.

Councillors also expressed disgust they were not consulted about the proposed charges before they were decided by Kennet's environmental services committee earlier this month.

Kennet's technical services manager, David Shearer, told the Gazette, Kennet was not required to consult people on changes to car parking charges. The council would consider representations about the proposed increases.