A TORY councillor has justified the increased charges as essential to the council’s four-year financial plan.

And he wrote to constituents dismissing the Journal’s campaign as “the usual thing”, asking: “Have you ever read any good news stories about Wiltshire Council?”

Richard Britton, who represents Alderbury, the Grimsteads and Whiteparish, said the council has maintained essential services to the vulnerable despite government funding cuts, while keeping council tax unchanged.

“Most councils are having to increase revenues wherever they can,” he said. “Car parking cannot be the exception. In Wiltshire car parking revenue helps subsidise rural bus services. Preserving these is really significant in such a rural county.

“I regret the necessity for these increases and I would also have preferred to have see some adjustments to the banding arrangements. But I’m not going to oppose them.”

Mr Britton, who said he particularly regretted the increased Sunday charges, claimed that Wiltshire’s strategy of encouraging people to use the park and ride by making city centre parking ever more expensive was working, with park and ride use creeping upwards.