Hadleigh town councillors have agreed the wording of a question about car parking charging that they plan to ask at Babergh's full council meeting next week.

Town mayor Frank Minns told councillors at a Hadleigh town council extraordinary general meeting last night that he had already sent the question, due to Babergh's deadline requirement for questions from the public, and looked for the wording to be ratified.

The question being put to Babergh councillors on Tuesday will read:

'In the light of the widespread opposition to the introduction of short term parking charges in Hadleigh, illustrated by the petition the Council is to consider, does BDC now agree that the proposal should be withdrawn and a coherent plan for parking across the town be developed through consultation with HTC and residents?'

Councillor Minns will be allowed to ask a follow up question, which does not have to to be sent in advance, once Babergh have responded to his initial question.

Babergh councillors will debate the cabinet paper regarding changing the car parking charges in its car parks following a petition opposing the proposals, which was signed by 1,300 people.

The proposals will also go to Babergh's scrutiny committee and will also be debated by the Cabinet, which will make the final decision.

All town councillors had their say regarding the charges last night and the general consensus was half an hour free parking in Hadleigh's council owned car parks was too short, and the timing of the move was inappropriate.

A brief summary of councillors' comments can be found below:

Cllr Knock said: "There should be some sort of charges, I don't understand why it is only going to be half an hour, when it is an hour in the high street and that will just encourage people to park in the street.

"I suggest one hour free, 50p up to three hours, then £1 after three hours.

"This has to be paid for and if people who use the facility don't pay for it, then people who don't use it, or walk into town and not use the car park will pay for it."

Cllr McLeod said he was astonished to find free parking when he first moved to Hadleigh but added: "Once I got used testing who used it, the elderly who do their shopping without worrying about getting back to their car, I understood why it was free.

"It encourages people from the villages to shop in hadleigh, otherwise they would park in Morrison's for free and do their shopping there."

Cllr Hinton:

Some charge probably does need to come into place, It is a he amount of money are paying out to fund it and when you look at other places, East Bergholt for example they refused to fund that and it went over to the community.

"I don't agree with the business plans and I certainly wasn't consulted. I believe their timings are completely inappropriate bearing in mind the global pandemic and the financial and economic crisis we are obviously plunging into."

He added his concerns about the environmental report and believes the decision should be delayed but also felt he did not think Hadleigh council should be opposing car parking charges in their entirety.

Cllr Beggerow felt the three hours free was very important to the high street businesses and believes it is a significant factor in attracting shoppers. He also aired concerns about the lack of specific for Hadleigh and was focused on Sudbury He called for figures relevant to Hadleigh car parks and for Babergh to consult with Hadleigh regarding car parks as it is doing with Lavenham parish council that is considering taking their main car park in-house..

Cllr Schleip said: "The timing of this is atrocious. We appear to have been bounced into this with a very tight timeline. You don't get many towns with free car parking but in these times it will encourage people to come into Hadleigh in the future. It should be deferred for proper consultation."

Cllr Gregg said: "I believe Hadleigh should be brought into the 20th century. I visit a lot of towns where you are charged. It should be an hour free but after that £1 for a further two hours. However, I agree the timing is not the best.

"I would also like to say publicly how disgusted I was with what happened with Cllr John Ward, we are all councillors and I'm sure we agree if that happened to us we would not be happy either. Shame on this who did that. there are ways of getting points out here, and that was not one of them."

Protesters converge of Babergh leader's home (full story here).

Cllr Gordon said she personally tried to avoid using the car parks and walked into Hadleigh and encouraged people to do the same when they can but recognised that was not always possible and people do need to drive into Hadleigh.

She added: "It is important to the high street that there is some level of free parking, I believe it should be a minimum hour free which is the same as in Dedham and it works well there.

"Babergh's report says the average time people park is 64 minutes, so I don't see why they want to bring in half an hour, they should also look to encourage people to use alternative modes of transport."

Cllr Bayliss: This is going to have a detrimental effect. Some smaller business will lose footfall. In 20 years time everyone will be driving electric cars anyway. This should be deferred until 2022.

"The whole world has so much to deal with and the slightest thing is big problem now whereas before slight set back would be dealt with in the normal way. A pound may not sound a lot but it could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for some."

He also expressed fears permits would be introduced for neighbouring street with drivers using them instead of the car parks.

The motion was carried by a majority, with two abstentions.

Babergh's full council meeting on Tuesday will be availed to watch on YouTube.