A SHAKE-UP of car parking charges in Grassington should encourage more visitors to the village and reduce nuisance parking.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has finally bowed to pressure from the village's chamber of trade after more than a year's constant lobbying.

For a trial period of 12 months beginning in April the cost of leaving your car in Colvend car park will now be £1 for two hours and £3 for the whole day.

Currently the rates are £1 for an hour and £2 all day.

"We have felt for a long time that the hourly rate was too high. Visitors were driving on to the car park and driving off again. Sometimes they would find somewhere else to park, other times they would just go to another village," explained Martyn Fretwell, chairman of the chamber of trade.

He added that it was felt people would see an increase in the all day rate by £1 as justifiable.

Mr Fretwell, who has Shenstone Art Gallery in the village, said often visitors would mention the high cost of parking.

"Sometimes it seemed as if they were blaming the shop keepers and that the high rates were our fault," he added saying that some visitors resorted to parking outside residents' homes, thus causing a nuisance to people who lived there.

"The chamber is pleased the Authority had agreed to our request after much battering and pummelling. The village has suffered a lot during the past year through foot and mouth and we believe reducing the parking rates will help everyone concerned," said Mr Fretwell.

Car park charges were first introduced by the national park authority in 1979.

The Colvend site took more than £83,500 in fees from April 2000 to March 2001. All the national park car parks together earn the Authority around £300,000 to £400,000 and a valuable source of income to fund the work the Authority does.

David Butterworth, chief executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority said: "We have always believed that £1 an hour represented good value for money to users of the Authority's car parks.

"However, following discussions with the Grassington Chamber of Trade we are prepared to trial a new pricing structure to see if this encourages visitors to stay longer in the village and so help to rebuild post foot and mouth.

"We will be monitoring the effects on our budget and will be interested to hear from the chamber of trade to see if the changes lead to visitors spending more money in the village."