CHARGES for overnight parking at South Lakeland District Council’s 42 car parks are to be introduced by the authority from April next year.

Motorists will be charged £1 for parking from 10pm to 8am following a decision made at today’s meeting of the Cabinet.

The new charge for parking after 6pm was agreed following a public consultation in which 53 per cent of respondents favoured evening charging.

Coun Graham Vincent, Enterprise and Economy portfolio holder, said: “We have listened to the what the public said in the consultation which is that they wanted evening and overnight charges rather than an increase on daily charges.

“As an authority we need to look at ways of raising revenue which are used to fund other essential services, the car parks are one of our main assets and we need to utilise them.

"By bringing in evening and overnight charges we have been mindful of the difficult financial times our residents are facing whilst managing to balance the needs of the authority.”

Councillors also agreed that the cost of parking should remain the same at all the authority’s car parks.

The council is also proposing to reduce the four-hour tariff to £5, which is a reduction of 50 pence.

And a change in the charging for Blue Badge holders will see them receive an extra hour parking free from January 2012.