TRADERS in Cirencester fear a drop in trade after councillors agreed to hike up parking charges throughout the Cotswolds.

Cotswold District Council is freezing the half-hour charge at its car parks at 50p but adding 10p to the one-hour £1 charge in its first shake-up of pay-and-display prices in four years.

The £1.60 charge for two hours will rise to £2, while a three-hour stay will increase from £2 to £2.50.

Season ticket holders who park in council-owned Cirencester, Tetbury and Stow-on-the-Wold have also been hit with a 20 percent increase from £280 to £340.

Council leader Cllr Lynden Stowe said at a meeting of the full council this morning he believed the new charges would protect shoppers popping into town for a pint of milk or loaf of bread.

By upping the tariff for long-stay users he also hoped to create a higher turnover of vehicles to free up spaces.

"Car park charges will always be an emotive subject," he said. "Nobody likes price rises but we have to be realistic."

The Tory-led council's new charging scheme will come into force on April 1.

Within three years the increased charges are expected to boost coffers by £500,000, although opposition councillors slammed the administration's policy of charging service users as a means of keeping council tax increases at 3.5 percent.

Cllr Peter Martin (Ind) particularly questioned why people who lived and worked in Cirencester, where most of the council's car parking revenue was generated, should be penalised by what amounted to a stealth tax.

Cllr Paul Hodgkinson (Lib Dem) added that a 20 percent increase for season ticket holders was outrageous and far above inflation.

"What an awful Christmas present for people with businesses in Cirencester and Tetbury," he said.

Cirencester Chamber of Commerce has formally written to CDC to object to the new charges. President Jonathan Davies told the Standard: "We're extremely disappointed by the council's short-sighted approach."