Plans to reduce day-time parking charges and introduce a cheaper weekly parking ticket have been given the go-ahead.

They come after a £2 charge for parking between 7pm and 6am Monday to Sunday was introduced for a trial period on 20 October 2014 to car parks inChatham Way, William Hunter Way, Friars Avenue and Hunters Avenue.

The trial period brought in an estimated additional £60,000, which will be added to the 2015/16 budget to reduce other fees, such as the full-day parking ticket, which will be reduced from £10.50 to £8.

The Committee also agreed to:

• Retain the £2 evening charge in Chatham Way and William Hunter Way

• Retain the evening charge in Friars Avenue and Hunter Avenue until 1 April 2015, and reintroduce this on completion of the Crossrail project in Shenfield.

• Introduce a £30 weekly charge in William Hunter Way through the pay-by-phone system only

• Introduce a Saturday workers' fee in Westbury Road car park of £4, which must be paid through the pay-by-phone system.

• For officers to start the process of making alterations to the off-street parking places in the visitor car park at the Town Hall.

• Introduce standard parking charges to the Town Hall visitor car park

• Establish a Cross-Party Working Group to develop a long-term car parking strategy for the Borough.

The changes are expected to be introduced in early June and were agreed by the Brentwood Borough Council's Business and Town Centres Committee on February 23. 

Brentwood Borough Council's Chair of the Business and Town Centres Committee, Councillor David Kendall, said: “Our aim was to try and achieve some fairness and balance between day and night when it came to parking in the council car parks in the Borough.

"I believe we have made a good start on the road to achieving our objective by not only keeping the first half hour free and not increasing day-time charges, but we have also reduced the all day charge from £10.50 to £8, which represents a massive 24 per cent saving saving.

"Through the review we also identified a need to provide a lower priced ticket for part-time workers on a Saturday who are on low incomes, so we have bought in a reduced rate of £4.

"We have also introduced a new weekly charge of £30 for users of the William Hunter Way Car Park.

"We would have liked to have gone much further in providing lower car parking charges but unfortunately the finances at this stage wouldn’t allow it, however I do believe that the changes we have made will be broadly welcomed by the shoppers, visitors and businesses in Brentwood.”