New plans have been revealed to end long-stay parking in Truro in a bid to stop people driving into the city.

Cornwall Council is looking at ending long-term parking – more than four hours – for commuters in 2021/22.

It is part of the council’s response to the climate emergency and bid to reduce the amount of traffic into the city centre.

The plans have come to light after Cabinet member Bob Egerton revealed that the council’s plans for a major redevelopment in Pydar Street would result in a reduction of parking spaces in the city.

Under the Pydar Street plans the Viaduct Car Park would be redeveloped and there are no plans to replace the parking spaces. The multi-storey car park has 338 spaces.

Because of this the council says it will be important that spaces are available for shoppers and visitors to the city which is why it wants to reduce the number of commuters using city car parks.

Details of the plans to end long-stay parking for city workers are revealed in a report on parking charges for 2020/21.

That report details plans to hike up “batch” tickets for parking in the city car parks which are used by commuters.

The proposals would see the daily rate of “batch” tickets increase from the current rate of £2.26 to £4 per 24 hours.

This is in a bid to encourage more commuters to use the park-and-ride service or ditch their cars for other forms of public transport.

With the park-and-ride costing between £1.40 and £1.80 a day, using multi-day tickets, the council says the difference between that and batch parking tickets at their current price is not enough of an incentive to get people out of their cars.

The council says that 21,500 parking sessions have been purchased as batches in the financial year to date.

In a report due to go to the economic growth and development overview and scrutiny committee next week the council outlines the problems in Truro.

It states: “The imbalance between the numbers of people who commute into Truro and the number of people who live and work in Truro is well documented. It is illustrated by the daily weekday congestion everyone experiences in the peak hours on the main routes into the city. Roads within Truro represent some the busiest of Cornwall’s road network. Traffic levels has been relatively static in the peak hours in Truro as the network is already congested but the period during which congestion occurs is extending.”

It adds: “In the longer term, the growth in housing in Truro, through strategic development at Langarth and Pydar, is likely to see a shift in balance between those who live elsewhere and travel in for work and those who live and work in the city. This shift will happen over a long period and, in the short to medium-term, there is a clear need to manage demand for private car travel on the Truro network.”

The report also states that the council is drawing up a work-based travel plan to reduce the number of council staff commuter miles into Truro by half.

The overview and scrutiny committee is due to meet on Tuesday (January 28).