A FORMER council leader claims introducing two hours free parking in Southend would create a “significant hole” in funding.

Nigel Holdcroft, who was Southend Council leader from 2007 to 2013, said he admires calls for free short-stay parking in the town, but believes it would create financial problems.

A petition has been started by Oracle magazine in the town to encourage the council to allow motorists to be able to park for free for two hours.

The proposal was first mooted in December as one of a number made by traders at a special meeting on the seafront. Other ideas included allowing cars to drive down the High Street.

Writing on his blog, Mr Holdcroft said: “It is difficult to argue against the claim that to introduce free parking would assist the retailers in the town centre however the problem with current calls is that no-one is addressing the obvious elephant in the room namely what would fill the resulting and significant hole in the council’s income.

“In my time as leader I asked officers to cost an initial period of free parking, but other than for a very limited introduction, it was simply financially undeliverable. Instead we had to fall back on freezing the charges for six of the relevant seven years and introducing other user friendly policies such as “pay on exit” – whatever happened to that?

“For this to be deliverable there has to be a clear indication of how the hole in the council’s finances would be filled.”

Mr Holdcroft highlighted other issues such as increased charges for more than two hours putting people off, and town centre car parks becoming full with motorists who wouldn’t support retailers.

The Echo reported last week that Southend Council would reintroduce one-hour parking over the summer at Seaway car park after it was initially scrapped last year, as part of a wider plan to increase the number of short-stay options in Southend.

Mr Holdcroft added: “It’s a great idea, but there needs to be a sensible debate on funding. In the meantime ‘pay on exit’, the return of one and three hour bands and machines that take cash would all help make council car parks more user friendly rather than downright hostile as they sometimes seem at present.”