TWO local councillors are being hailed as "Parking Heroes" by shop and business workers and business owners in Crediton.

Independent Liberal Democrat Cllr Bob Wright (Lawrence, Crediton) and Conservative Cllr Derek Coren (Yeo) have secured a triumph for those who work in the town, as well as shoppers.

The Mid Devon District councillors have persuaded fellow counterparts to approve parking measures which have many benefits for those who use Crediton's St Saviour's Way car park (also known as High Street car park, Crediton).

The two were previously successful in persuading MDDC to permit five hours of parking in the St Saviour's Way car park for five hours for the charge of just £1.

Despite those who said "It will never work" and "Mid Devon will lose money", it has had the opposite effect and revenues and usage of the car park have increased.

So successful has the scheme been that it was rolled out to some of MDDC's other long stay car parks.

Cllr's Wright and Coren have now made some "tweeks" to use of the car park, which have been approved by MDDC.

From April 1, the charges at St Saviour's Way car park will be £1 for five hours and £2 for up to 10 hours.

Mr Wright explained that many workers and shoppers found that five hours was "not helpful" and that they had to "feed" the meter to allow them to continue at work or allow them to stay longer.

Previously, Mr Wright had been able to secure an exemption to MDDC's condition that no motorist could park in the car park for five hours without leaving the park for one hour.

He said that the new charge would allow the shop workers to work for a full day and also allow shoppers to stay longer, if needed.

Currently, after the five hours for a £1 charge, the next charge is £3.60 for 24 hours, which will remain.

In addition, MDDC has approved great reductions in the costs of season tickets for the park.

Another boost for season ticket holders is that they can now be purchased six monthly or quarterly and the season ticket will apply in all of MDDC's long stay car parks, namely those at Tiverton and Station Road, Cullompton, whereas previously the season ticket only applied to a named car park.

There will be no change in the parking charges at the Market Street, Crediton, car park.

Cllr Wright said: "This is really good news for shop workers, shoppers and business owners.

"Workers can park for just £2 for up to 10 hours and business owners can now afford, I would suggest, to pay for more of their staff to have season tickets as they will, of course, be able to claim back not only the VAT but also the Business Tax reduction, which means that for a year, the actual charge they end up paying will be less than £200, despite paying £308 for the permit."

Cllr Wright said that the permits are available from MDDC's office at Market Street, Crediton.

He explained that a working group of councillors looking at parking issues across Mid Devon, of which he and Cllr Coren were local members, had come up with many "tweeks" to improve parking for users in Mid Devon.

Other areas the group is currently looking at is seeking volunteers to help keep car parks tidy in each town or parish, provision of cycle racks and other issues.