HAMBLETON Council’s move to ease some of its parking charges in Northallerton’s main Applegarth car park has been welcomed by almost everyone in the town.

The exception must surely be those at County Hall who are maintaining the official North Yorkshire County Council line that the introduction of charges on the High Street has served to increase the turnover of the limited number of spaces and should benefit retailers. Hambleton’s decision would seem to suggest that the High Street charges are having an adverse impact – as retailers have consistently said.

Both councils are Conservative controlled. One can only speculate if Hambleton’s leaders discussed this with their Tory county colleagues before announcing the move.

Hambleton District Council is in a relatively fortunate financial position compared to the county council. It was recently able to report it was performing better than expected this year and has some surplus cash. It can afford to forego the £100,000 income the short-stay charges would have generated. At the same time it can say this is a concrete example of being a business-friendly council – a professed aim of the new leadership team.

But how does the County Council respond? Despite its insistence that it will only review its current arrangements in the High Street after a six-month period has elapsed, its position has been fatally undermined by Hambleton’s decision.

While it is possible that turnover of spaces in the High Street has increased, it doesn’t follow that it means more business. Indeed, most traders maintain that business has slumped – by significant amounts in some cases – since the introduction of charges.

The county council needs to bring forward its review of the scheme. Falling into line with Hambleton’s policy by offering the first hour free in the High Street would be the obvious first step.