NEW parking charges could be introduced across Wirral as town hall chiefs look to undo the damage caused by increases in pay and display tariffs.

Wirral Council “rationalised” car parking charges across the peninsula in April 2013.

It meant that motorists visiting West Kirby, Heswall and Liscard shops had to fork out extra cash for local authority car parks -  with the first hour of parking in council-run car parks going up from 30p in some districts to £1.05.

But a new report recommends the council rethink such charges and calls for a banding structure to be introduced instead.

The report, which will be considered by the authority’s regeneration and environment policy and performance committee on Monday, calls on the ruling-cabinet to think again about parking charges and remove what it considers “inconvenient denominations”.

At present, one hour, two hour and three hour tickets cost motorists £1.05, £1.65 and £2.05 respectively – something the review says leads users who do not have the correct change to overpay.

In June, Heswall business owners and members of the local community took to the streets to protest against the increased parking charges.

Despite a drop of more than 8,000 ticket sales in 2013/14 compared with the same period in 2012/13, the total net income from Heswall’s 488 car parking spaces has risen from £123,365 to £189,398, according to figures from Wirral Council.

Members of Heswall and District Business Association (HDBA) say the telling statistic shows how long people are now parking, with figures showing the average time spent in Heswall’s car parks has fallen from between three and four hours to just one hour.

Campaigners will be hoping their troubles are about to end, with the report to Monday’s meeting recommending that “cabinet should introduce a banding structure for car park tariffs to support the long term viability of Wirral’s shopping and commercial centres and to ensure that the price of parking is fair and not detrimental to the economic wellbeing of shopping and commercial centres”.

The report also reveals that while parking income has increased by £174,283 for 2013/14, the overall target for budget savings of £281,000 was not met.

Wirral’s Conservative councillors fiercely opposed the standardisation of car parking charges in the borough.

Conservative Group leader Cllr Jeff Green said: “I am pleased that this report vindicates the position that we took from the outset, that hiking up charges to fill council coffers would hit local businesses hard and be yet another locally imposed increase in the cost of living by this out of touch Labour administration.”

The West Kirby and Thurstaston ward member added: “The number of parking tickets sold in West Kirby is down by over 20% and 17% in Liscard.

“That decrease will be having a devastating impact on our local businesses and it’s time for the Labour administration to admit they were wrong and do something about it.”

While the number of tickets sold has dropped in some areas, in others – including Birkenhead and Heswall long stay car parks – they have increased.

But the report shows that while the overall income from the borough’s car parks has increased by 3.66%, overall ticket sales are down 4.5%.

Councillors on the regeneration and environment policy and performance committee will be asked to decide whether the report should be referred to cabinet for further discussion.