A vote is to be taken on whether Wiltshire Council provides an hour’s free car parking in all of its car parks.

Controversial increases in car parking charges of up to 300 per cent were introduced last April by Wiltshire Council.

An alternative budget proposal has been put on the table in which the £1.53 million needed to provide one hour’s free car parking in every car park has been found.

Liberal Democrat councillors want to introduce the changes to bolster business in Wiltshire town centres and are asking for rival councillors to show their support for the plan when the council’s 2012 budget is set at a meeting on Tuesday at 10.30am at the Trowbridge Civic Centre.

Coun Jon Hubbard, leader of the Lib Dem group, said: “The decisions taken by the Conservative administration last year were completely divorced from the needs and wants of our communities.

“Now we want to reverse that so that we can encourage people to come back into our town centres and traders can start doing business again.”

Rob Perks, president of Chippenham Chamber of Commerce, said: “I welcome this proposal. The increase in revenue from car parking charges did not work out as envisaged because of a fall in the usage so next Tuesday is an opportunity for councillors to do something positive for our town centres.”

Wiltshire Council’s finance officer Michael Hudson has said in a report that the proposal is financially sound, meaning that the council could afford to carry out the changes if they were agreed to.

Free parking would be funded through additional cuts to the number of council managers and introducing new, cheaper-to-run LED street lighting countywide.

Council leader Jane Scott said: “I am not going to pre-empt the debate on Tuesday but what I would say now is that we are looking over these proposals now. We have concerns that we would find it difficult to fund this beyond the first year.

“Changing things costs money and we have to make sure that it would be viable in the long term.”