Cheshire East has refused to scrap borough parking charges until the end of the year to help high street shops because it can't afford to lose an estimated £180,000.

Each town which has pay and display has four days free parking per year and the dates for this are decided by the relevant town or parish council.

Odd Rode councillor Patrick Redstone (Con) asked at the recent council meeting what Cheshire East was doing in addition to these four free days to support shopping in the high street over the Christmas period.

Deputy leader Craig Browne, who chairs the highways and transport committee, said there were a number of car parks where there is free parking after 3pm to encourage shoppers and also there are no charges on Christmas Day, as part of a nationwide policy.

He continued: "But as I understand it, the request is to look at the Christmas holiday period from December 19 to December 31 which equates to effectively a 12-day period of free parking. The difficulty, I suppose is, it's impractical to assume that this could be applied to one single town.

"If we said yes to one, we would understandably be under pressure from all the others to apply that principle across the borough and officers have calculated that the cost of doing so would be approximately £180,000 to the council."

Cllr Browne (Alderley Edge, Ind) referred to the in-year inflationary pressure of £8.7m the council is facing.

"So I'm afraid, at the current time, this is a proposal that we simply can't afford," he said. "We can't afford to add £180,000 to that £8.7m pressure that already exists.

"If, however, a town or parish council wish to come and discuss Cheshire East Council suspending parking charges, and said town or parish council were willing to discuss with us reimbursing Cheshire East for that lost income, then that might be something we could consider going forwards."

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