PLANS to offer a free one-hour 's parking in a bid to boost trade have been branded a damp squib.

Shoppers in Redcar have been able to take advantage of free parking after 1pm as a Christmas initiative was extended to allow Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council carry out a borough-wide review of car parking facilities.

At the authority’s cabinet meeting this morning, (Tuesday, January 20), the results of the consultation recommended one-hour free street parking be offered throughout Redcar town centre.

However, independent councillor Steve Kay called on the cabinet to take a more radical approach and scrap parking charges after 1pm on a permanent basis.

“Shopping does not occur in one hour,” said the Lockwood councillor. “People want to browse and look in the shops – we don’t want people to bomb in and bomb back out again. What we are getting here is a damp squib.

“One way to get people to come into the borough to shop would be to extend this 1pm free afternoon parking throughout the borough which would be useful to more retailers and shoppers.”

Councillor Mark Hannon, the cabinet member for economic development, said ideally he would love for parking to be free throughout the day, but that would bring its own problems.

Councillor Steve Goldswain, the cabinet member for community safety, slammed Cllr Kay’s proposal.

He said: “When we gave free parking before (shop workers and businessmen) abused it when they started to park outside their shops and then customers couldn’t get parked. They then asked us what we were going to do about it.

“The free hour is what the shop owners are asking for now and that is what we are planning on giving them. We have consulted with them and listened to their concerns and we believe this is the best way forward.”

Members of the cabinet unanimously approved the recommendations.

The plan to introduce the free hour in Redcar was one of several recommendations, including not changing the current blue badge scheme, which will now be heard at full council on February 12.