ALTON Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has written to East Hampshire District Council (EHDC), challenging decisions over Christmas and Sunday car parking charges.

ACCI has urged EHDC leader, Ferris Cowper, to look again at Christmas parking concessions by conducting a fair and formal assessment of the three-year trial taking into account its original objective, which was for EHDC to play its part in Alton's town centre regeneration programme.

ACCI president Steve Dalley points out that it was the Chamber's understanding that EHDC's "trial of free car parking periods in the district for Christmas" was for a finite period which had ended last year.

Contact with EHDC had indicated that an informal survey of retailers had been conducted in Petersfield but there was no confirmation that any similar survey had been carried out in Alton.

ACCI questions how it had been possible for EHDC to draw an objective conclusion without evidence of a formal assessment involving all the parties at which the trial was aimed.

This, points out Mr Dalley, could only be viewed as "a poor reflection on the way that EHDC conducts trials, especially one that has lasted three years, with a specific objective in mind."

And "this apparently disappointing approach to the preparation of a conclusion" was seen by ACCI to have paid "scant regard" to the investment made by EHDC in the trial.

Furthermore, it was felt by ACCI that the trial had been carried out in an uncoordinated fashion and that it would have been better if all the parties had worked together over matters such as publicity, events, post Christmas 'wash-ups' and the like. Mr Dalley's message was: "It is a pity that this project, which was initiated as a result of a visit to Alton by Andrew Pattie (leader of EHDC at the time) and intended as a gesture by EHDC to play its part in town centre regeneration, has been followed up so poorly by EHDC."

While it was understood that legal processes would prevent a further trial this Christmas, the request from ACCI was for EHDC to conduct a more formal analysis of the trial with a view to developing future initiatives which would help to maintain the vibrancy of the district's market towns.

It was felt that this approach could build on this year's concession by EHDC to allow free car parking for Alton's Yuletide Festival on Sunday, December 7.

ACCI had noted "with interest" the effort by EHDC at Petersfield during the same period.

Mr Dalley's letter points out that, because only a few retailers open for business on a Sunday, the decision by EHDC to impose charges mainly hit local residents, confirming the general view that "EHDC parking charges are a discretionary tax".

"The Sunday charge has resulted in unregulated (and even illegal) parking elsewhere in the town and in particular has imposed additional costs on churchgoers" - since most of the churches are in the middle town.

ACCI added: "It is clear that EHDC did not think through the political impact of this change and, in Alton's case, did not take cognisance of the approaches taken by Winchester, Basingstoke or Farnham (towns that give free or concessionary parking on Sundays) where direct comparisons can be made by Alton residents."

Mr Dalley concludes that, as a result, ACCI was supportive of residents' calls for an end to Sunday car parking charges, suggesting that it was "time for EHDC to review the whole matter and develop more coherent policies for car park charges for the future".