STRONG objections have been voiced by St Austell town councillors over proposed changes to the running of a number of car parks in Cornwall.

Councillors are particularly concerned about the fate of the Clifden Road Car Park in the town.

Cornwall Council is proposing to transfer 25 of its car parks across the county to its arm’s length company, Conserv Solutions, to enable an ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) parking system to be introduced in an attempt to boost its troubled finances.

The town council, which already runs the town centre Priory Car Park, is disappointed that it has not been given the opportunity to manage the Clifden Road Car Park.

The town councillors say the Clifden Road Car Park is essential for traffic management in the Clifden Road and Mount Charles Road area.

They fear that if local drivers boycott the car park “due to aggressive enforcement” this could lead to more street parking and general congestion, particularly during the school drop off and pick up periods.

The councillors say that Corserv Solutions has little or no experience of managing car parks and that private sector ANPR enforcement “tends to be aggressive”.

They also voiced the concern that “the desire to make a profit will make it unlikely that the car parks will be maintained to a good standard”.

Looking at the wider picture in the county, they said that some of the car parks in the proposed scheme are in areas that are critical for tourism and they feared that “subjecting tourists to aggressive ANPR enforcement is likely to drive tourists away from Cornwall instead of welcoming them”.

The councillors decided the town council should write to Cornwall Council to strongly object to the proposed changes and to ask for them to be reconsidered. They believe Cornwall Council should either retain the car parks or engage with town and parish councils “to maintain democratic control of the very important community assets”.

The Readymoney Cove Car Park at Fowey is also among the car parks affected.