Councillors are celebrating after getting the borough council to agree to waive charges for residents in a Basingstoke car park.
Earlier this month, councillors Paul Harvey, George Hood and Laura James slammed proposals to bring in an overnight £1 parking charge at Vyne Meadow car park on Vyne Road.
But Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council announced on Monday it will trial a new scheme exempting residents from paying the fee.
“It was a fair proposal and we are willing to trial it for a six month period,” said Cabinet Member for Communities, Sport and Leisure Clive Sanders.
“But we have to see that commuters using the car park are not affected. I don’t expect that to happen as it seems to be happening informally at the moment with no problems.”
The scheme hopes to go live at the start of next month once officers have cleared the move.
In April 2009, all of the borough’s 10 long stay car parks had a £1 overnight charge introduced with the exception of Vyne Meadow, which is currently free to park overnight.
However in April when the budget is cleared, overnight charges from 6pm until 8am will be brought in.
Cllr Harvey said that the 345-space car park is used by residents as overspill when they are unable to find street parking outside their homes.
He appealed to leader of the council Andrew Finney and Cllr Sanders saying that the move was unfair on residents already paying for a £25 street parking permit.
Cllr Sanders said residents with a parking permit will now be exempt from paying the £1 charge.
Non-permit holders will still have to pay the £1 overnight charge.
The move applies to residents in Vyne Road, Crowell Road, Queen Mary Avenue, Soper Grove, Burgess Road and Phoenix Park Terrace.
Cllr Harvey said: “We are really pleased, it is something the residents wanted and the council have listened to their concerns.
“It is now a case to see if it works which we know it will, people need it to work because it is incredibly useful to residents who would otherwise be stuck.”
The Labour group said they canvassed more than 500 residents in South Ham and 90 per cent-plus were in favour.
But Cllr Sanders said the car park was equally important for commuter parking in the day, and said the scheme cannot impact their parking.
