A consultation will be launched if plans to charge for disabled parking and parking in country parks are approved.

Wrexham Council hopes to implement a daily £1 charge for visitors to Nant Mill, Alyn Waters and Ty Mawr country parks, as well as the offer of an annual parking permit costing £50.

The authority also hopes to introduce disabled parking charges in line with
non-disabled tariffs across all Wrexham Council car parks where charges apply.

Blue badge holders would be afforded one additional hour beyond the time paid for if the proposals are adopted.

It is hoped the measures will be in place by April 3.

Cllr David A. Bithell, lead member for environment and transport, said it was estimated the country parks charges would bring in £47,000 per year and disabled parking charges would raise £25,000.

He added: “We are not making a profit. That money would go back into our budget.

“If we don’t introduce these charges, the reality is there would be an impact on frontline services.

“These measures will reduce the risk of that in the environment department.

“We have spent quite a lot of money upgrading machines in all our car parks so you can pay by card, cash or mobile phone and these machines will be going into country parks as well.

“I think it is important to note that being disabled is not about the ability to pay, it is about access and making sure the space is adequate for people with mobility issues to get in and out of their vehicle.”

The measure is part of the authority’s proposed budget savings for 2018/19 and 2019/20, during which it needs to cut about £13 million.

But a statutory consultation is needed before the measures could be adopted.

The proposals were included in the authority’s difficult decisions consultation and council bosses say the responses received were largely supportive.

Plans are also afoot to introduce charging for elected members and council staff, though that would be considered an internal matter and therefore no wider consultation is needed to implement them.