If levels of revenue aren’t generated through parking charges “another service has to bear the burden.”

That was the warning from Cllr Aaron Shotton, leader of Flintshire Council, as local authority members recommended increased parking tariffs to take affect from May this year.

In a joint meeting of the council’s corporate resources and environment overview and scrutiny committees, members agreed to advise cabinet to adopt increased parking charges which is expected to recoup £954,496 – an increase of almost £500,000.

Currently, Flintshire Council receives £459,509 from charges while £886,000 is spent managing its car parks.

A new short stay option will also be considered by the authority’s ruling body when it meets next Tuesday after councillors felt a 30p for 30 minutes provision would not be suitable.

Fees at council sites in seven towns will rise from April after officers conducted its first review of the scheme introduced initially in July 2015.

Steve Jones, chief officer Streetscene and transportation, said officers had “ran dozens of models” to come up with the proposed parking charge scheme and had worked in a “six per cent margin of error”.

Mr Jones said Flintshire was “working with every town council to provide on street parking where we can” and said relaxing of pedestrianised areas could be relaxed.

Cllr Carolyn Thomas, cabinet member for Streetscene and environment, said the viability of towns “is really important” and the authority was looking to cover costs, rather than make money from parking charges.

She added: “Don’t compare across the county, they are still good value compared to across the region.”

Cllr Owen Thomas, Cilcain (Con), said increased charges in Mold would be “disastrous” for the town’s markets as without them “Mold hasn’t got anything else.”

Colin Everett, Flintshire Council chief executive, said if Mold wasn’t treated differently to other towns, “we would have to disperse that across the county and lower the base.”

Cllr Chris Dolphin, leader of the Liberal Democrat group and member for Whitford, said standardisation of pricing “isn’t possible” as “you can’t please everyone.”

Cllr Shotton told members that increasing charges was “about cost recovery” and he couldn’t find a local authority comparable to Flintshire offering the same level of charges.

He said: “If we don’t retain this level of funding, another service has to bear the burden.”

Cllr Paul Cunningham, Flint Trelawny (LAB), said Flintshire had done “pretty well” to keep its charges low but it shouldn’t be used as a “cash cow” rather the money be spent on site maintenance.

On the possible introduction of 30 minutes parking for 30p, Cllr Mike Peers, leader of the Independent Alliance group, said it was “inadequate” and “is not going to work” with an offer of one hour “needed to make people stay longer.”

Cllr Dave Evans, Shotton East (LAB), indicated he could not support the changes as “a carte blanche to increase again is to kill” high street stores.

He said in areas like his shopkeepers were “struggling like hell” and it needed looking at again.

As part of the changes to fee structure, some car parks in Holywell will in future allow multi-visits on a single ticket and there are no plans to raise the car parking charges currently in Talacre as the rates charged there are already above those charged elsewhere in the county due to the location and the number of spaces available.

The committee passed on a recommendation that cabinet consider a budget proposal for the introduction of one hour parking for 30p while maintenance costs and a breakdown of car parks is to be discussed.