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Free car parking will be extended for another six months in council-owned car parks across Caerphilly County Borough.

The council’s cabinet has agreed to extend the free car parking to at least the end of September.

The council leader Cllr Philippa Marsden said a decision will be made then on whether to extend it beyond Christmas.

The council had originally suspended charges at pay and display car parks until March 31 in a move first introduced last summer to help businesses hit by coronavirus restrictions and support and encourage residents to “stay local” for shopping.

However, the leader of the council’s Independent group, Cllr Kevin Etheridge, called on the council to extend free parking until April 2022 to help businesses in the run-up to Christmas.

Cllr Etheridge also called on the council’s cabinet to consider abolishing car parking charges altogether following the announcement from Welsh Government yesterday that town centres in Wales would be getting a share of £24 million for regeneration.

Mr Etheridge was told that the £24 million would be for town centre improvements not for free car parking and would last for a given period, so it would not be appropriate to use the scheme to abolish charges altogether.

The leader of the council’s Plaid Cymru group, Cllr Colin Mann, said: “While it is very welcome that free parking has been extended, we don’t feel it goes far enough.

“Although non-essential shops are due to open next month, it will take a very long time for high streets to return to anything like they were before the pandemic and traders have lost a huge amount of income since March 2020.

“The run-up to next Christmas will be crucial, particularly for independent traders.

“They missed out in the crucial last week before Christmas 2020 because we went into lockdown. So, we believe to encourage people to shop in our town centres in the run-up to Christmas 2021 free car parking should be extended until the end of 2021.”