Car park charges in Cornwall could be higher the closer the spaces are to town centres in future.

Cornwall Council currently has 280 car parks across the county and is undertaking a positive parking review to look at how they should be run in future.

Geoff Brown, Cabinet member for transport, said that the review would look at charges and one option would be to have “zoning” for car parks.

He said: “Part of the tarrifs review will look at how we actually move people around our car parks, which ones are used most frequently, which ones are short stay.

“We are looking at zoning. The further out you are from town centres it will be less.”

Mr Brown said that the council was still hampered by having differences in car park charges which date from when they were set by the former district and borough councils.

The Cabinet member stressed that any changes to parking charges would be subject to full consultation before they are introduced.

The council is set to start making some changes soon including the roll out of pay-on-foot or pay-on-exit car parks.

This will be trialled initially in ten of the council’s biggest car parks with a view to rolling it out across many more.

The council hopes that this will make it easier for people to pay for parking as well as encouraging them to spend longer in town centres as they will not be limited by paying for parking in advance.

Mr Brown said: “Pay on exit will make parking fairer for all. It will remove the nee to run back to your car when your parking is running out after an hour.”

The other benefit to pay-on-exit is that the council’s enforcement officers will no longer have to monitor car parks and this will enable them to instead spend time on the streets and checking that motorists are parking properly there.

Mr Brown also said that the park and ride service in Truro would also be reviewed.

He said: “It is cheaper to park in some of the car parks in Truro city centre then to use the park and ride. We need to look at that and make it more of an incentive.

“At the moment it closes early and doesn’t open on Sundays. I would like to look at that and opening in evenings to support staff working at Treliske to use the park and ride. We need to look at the options of using park and ride, especially in the west.”

The council’s Cabinet has recommended that £2.1million is invested in new technology in car parks for the pay-on-exit plans. The full council will vote on the funding next month.