SHOPPERS are being driven away from a market town because of the cost of car parking, according to a local councillor.

Councillor Valerie Halton said she has completed her own surveys in Guisborough and argued that since Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council put up the cost of car parking in the town last year, the car parks were only half full.

Coun Halton said work is being undertaken in Guisborough to regenerate the town as part of the Countryside Agency's Market Towns Initiative, and that regeneration needs good car parking.

"We have not got bad car parking facilities in Guisborough, the problem is that no-one ever hardly uses them.

"I did my own surveys and the car parks are less than half as well used as they used to be, and that is not good for Guisborough.

"People from the east Cleveland villages used to come to Guisborough to do their shopping and go to the market.

"However, now because of the car parking charges they are going elsewhere.

"It is just an absolutely stupid situation - the council wants to drive people out of their cars, but they are driving them out of the town."

Councillor Keith Pudney said he did not think the charges had stopped people from parking their cars in the town.

"To be fair, the car parking charges in Guisborough did not go up at the same rate as they went up in Redcar, and there are no car parking charges at all on the cobbles for two hours. Guisborough has not suffered in any way."

He said that revenue coming from disc parking, which had been organised by Guisborough Town Council, helped to fund projects in the town such as the Christmas lights.