ANGRY town councillors have accused Wiltshire Council of wasting money that could be used to keep car parking prices down by failing to repair pay machines and not having enough wardens.

Devizes Town Council has refused to fill in a survey on parking charges but has instead put together its own response to plans by Wiltshire to put prices up by around 12 per cent and a threat to introduce charges to the Market Place.

Mayor Nigel Carter said that one payment machine in the long stay area of Station Road had been out of action for 13 weeks and enforcement officers were usually only on patrol twice a week.

He said: "Enforcement is inadequate and leads to a potential loss of revenue. There is often a wide extent of improper parking and this does not help with the town's traffic issues."

Cllr Jane Burton questioned what Wiltshire had done with the money raised from previous parking rises. She said: "We were told it was going on public transport but transport in Devizes is getting less and less. So where has all the money gone?"

Cllr Albert Wooldridge opposed the planned rise. He said: "If they kept the machines working you wouldn't need to put the price up."

Councillors were also keen for Devizes to have the same parking charges as similar market towns such as Westbury, Warminster and Melksham rather than parity with bigger towns such as Chippenham and Trowbridge.

They pointed out that Devizes and Marlborough were still suffering from higher charges levied by the old Kennet District Council compared with the former West Wiltshire District Council.

The council's planning committee voted unanimously to support a report by a working group which came up with an eight point reaction to Wiltshire's parking plan.

The report says: "The town council would strongly resist any charge being made to park in Devizes Market Place." It also opposes moving free event parking in November and December to other times of the year.

The report says: "The only rational given for this was free parking used for Christmas shopping, when in reality the majority of towns use it for Christmas events and its loss would end the ability to run these highly successful community events."

There is also concern about increasing the cost of season tickets as it was believed it would lead to more motorists parking in residential areas.

But it does back plans to reduced the amount of time allowed for people to overrun parking times from 15 minutes to ten.