CRAVEN Tories have fired their first broadside since gaining control of the district council by promising a major shake-up of car parking charges.

The Herald can reveal that in the last few weeks they have been in talks with finance chiefs at the council in a bid to discover if the cost of parking can be slashed and still balance the books.

Although the Conservative group is keeping its planned changes close to its chest, the proposals have been described as "radical" and could be pushed through within two months.

Back in January a plan to reduce car parking charges in Craven put forward by the Tories was defeated, but that was when no one party had overall control of the council.

Conservative Coun David Crawford told a meeting of all Craven councillors on Tuesday that full details of the proposed shake-up would be put before members of the policy and resources committee at the end of June and hopefully rubber stamped the following month.

"There is a terrific amount of alterations to be made and it's all got to add up," he said.

"However, we must remember that car parking charges are a major source of revenue for this authority and we have relied on them in the past to keep council taxes down."

At the moment car parking charges in Skipton range from 60p for an hour in the High Street car park to 90p for an hour in the Coach Street and Millfields car parks.

After the meeting, Conservative Group leader Peter Walbank told the Herald: "Our main aim is to get the prices down and that's what we hope will happen.

'But we don't want council taxes to go up because not every householder uses the car parks. We're currently looking at the figures to see exactly how much we can reduce car parking charges by."

The news will be welcomed by traders on Coach Street and Water Street in Skipton who handed in a 33 signature petition to the council this week requesting, as a matter of urgency, that car parking charges be reduced.

"The excessive car parking charges operating in Skipton are without doubt contributing hugely to a fall in the number of serious shoppers as opposed to the day-trippers brought in by coach," said a spokesman for the traders.

"It is an unfortunate geographical fact that the designation of long stay and short stay car parks in our town actually brings about an unfair east/west divide.

"The obvious result of this situation has been a dramatic fall in the number of customers and potential customers for many of the specialist, individual shops in the Coach Street and Water Street area.

"We would urge the council to look at a system of charges in Skipton which makes all car parks equal.

"Certainly, it would go quite some way to ensuring our town doesn't die, stop unnecessary traffic congestion and help to retain many types of shop that visitors come to Skipton for."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.