DARLINGTON has too many parking spaces and needs to find a way to rebalance a system that is too focused on a small number of car parks, an independent expert has found.

Darlington Borough Council called in consultancy firm MVA to come up with a long-term parking strategy for the town, looking at public and private owned car parks and on street parking around the borough.

Consultant Stephen Campopiano attended a meeting of the council’s place scrutiny committee to advise members of his initial findings and to ask for their views ahead of a full presentation to councillors in September.

Mr Campopiano said spot counts at car parks on different days showed that drivers tended to use the same car parks close to the town centre and argued that Darlington is in the unusual position of having too much parking stock.

He added that parking charges were not to blame for the fall in shoppers in the town centre, which he said was caused by the economic downturn and people choosing to shop less.

He said: “What it comes down to for people is location - certain car parks are very popular and well used. Shop and office workers want to park cheaply and close to town so they take all the free spaces in residential areas.

“The council is also competing with cheaper private car parks close to the centre, which is creating the excess parking stock.

“Free parking is not an option for Darlington, the current system is only just breaking even. Whatever we come up with is a medium or long term solution, it will not happen overnight.”

The consultants have come up with a long list of proposals after consulting with senior councillors, traders and representatives from disability and older peoples groups, including the idea of a pay on exit service, free parking after 3pm and a stricter regime for residents parking to stop abuses of the system.

They also discussed changing the balance of short and long stay parking to encourage people working in the town centre to park further away, which would allow shoppers to park closer.

Committee chairman Dot Long said: “I applaud the idea of looking at residents areas. We want to look at the whole system and what will work together to get the balance right.”