Cornwall Council has announced how much it plans to increase parking charges for Helston and surrounding areas in 2020/21.

Under the proposals fees in council car parks will increase by 1.5% from April for the next year. The price hikes will apply to short-term and long-term parking charges across the council's car parks.

Increases will be rounded up to the nearest 10p which will mean that some of the rises will be higher than 1.5%.

However in some car parks it could lead to the one-hour parking rate increase by as much as 33% – in Callington New Road car park, for example, the hourly rate will go from 30p to 40p.

The main exception to the changes is in Penzance where the town has been trialling different charges.

A report going to Cornwall Council's economic growth and development overview and scrutiny committee explains this difference.

It states: "The exception to the above increases will be Penzance, where, following discussion with the BID (business improvement district), town council, and nominated local member, the majority of summer parking tariffs for 2020/21 will return to the 2018/19 summer charges, following a year of experimental tariffs, which have been subsidised though separate funding."

In the table of proposed charges it indicates that some charges in Penzance could be doubled for the coming year.

The summer charges for Harbour, St Anthony, St Erbyns and Wherrytown car parks show the first hour will increase from 50p to £1.

Season ticket and reserved space charges will all also increase by 1.5%.

The report states that the council estimates that the increase in charges could raise income from car parks by £500,000 – depending on the use of car parks remaining at the current level.

Under the council's budget plans it is aiming for a £300,000 increase to meet maintenance costs for the council's car parks.

The proposed charges will be discussed by the overview and scrutiny committee next week which will decide whether they should go out for consultation.

Under the plans the consultation will start on January 27 and continue for three weeks.