PEOPLE visiting Clevedon will have to pay £1 an hour to leave their vehicles in the town's seaside car parks. Prices have gone up this month at The Hawthorns and The Salthouse Fields by nearly 10 per cent. Visitors will now pay £2 rather than £1.80 to par

PEOPLE visiting Clevedon will have to pay £1 an hour to leave their vehicles in the town's seaside car parks.Prices have gone up this month at The Hawthorns and The Salthouse Fields by nearly 10 per cent.Visitors will now pay £2 rather than £1.80 to park for two hours, £3 rather than £2.70 to park for three hours and a wallet busting £4 - up 40 pence on last year - to park for four hours.The decision was made to bring Clevedon's prices in line with those charged in Weston-super-Mare.The fees will add unwanted extra cost to people visiting the town for a day out and councillors say the price hike will lead to visitors parking in side roads to avoid the charges.Clevedon town councillor Carole Wring said: "The rise in parking charges will have a knock on effect on residential roads with people using them to park for free."This in turn will cause problems for local people who will not be able to park outside their own homes and sometimes end up getting blocked in."There is also the issue that this extra cost of parking will deter people from coming to Clevedon for a day out and this will effect the local economy and the restaurants, bars and shops which rely on a visitor's business."The price hike comes despite the rate of inflation only being about two per cent.Clevedon Town Council is to write to North Somerset asking how the car parks are monitored and charges enforced and whether income from charges is ploughed back into car parks.North Somerset Council executive member for planning and transport John Crockford-Hawley said he felt families visiting the resort would not be put off by the increase.Mr Crockford-Hawley said: "I do not think a family visiting Clevedon would be put off by paying 20 pence or 30 pence extra for their parking."A lot of money is being ploughed back into improving the car parks and now parking in North Somerset is safer than ever."Mr Crockford-Hawley said improvements to be made to car parks in Clevedon are to include installing dedicated disabled bays and ramps up to the pay and display machines.He added: "The authority has to pay business rates on its car parks and in Clevedon last year this totalled £26,000.