Great Yarmouth Borough Council has yesterday published a report setting out proposals to change some elements of its off-street car parking service to benefit residents and town centre traders.

The report, to be considered at a special council meeting on December 11 details recomm-endations of the cross-party car parking working group, following its review of operation, charging and utilisation across the service.

Under the proposals, which would come into effect in March 2015, all borough residents would also be able to apply for a new digital resident incentive card, providing them with one hour's additional free parking with any ticket purchased in three key town centre car parks – George Street, King Street, and Brewery Plain.

All of the council's 14 non-fee paying car parks, except South Quay would remain non-chargeable.

All motorists – both residents and visitors – would be able to park free-of-charge in these three car parks every Wednesday afternoon, throughout the year.

There would also be more permit parking options to help commuters.

However, some charges would change slightly at the town centre and seafront car parks to help restore income from fees and charges to nationally-equivalent levels as part of work to ensure the authority spends within its means, while protecting or improving key frontline services.

In a press release, the council say Great Yarmouth has not increased pay and display car parking charges since 2009, other than on the seafront during the last year, meaning charges are on average much cheaper than comparable authorities, including Waveney.

The report proposes an hourly rate of £1.20 in the summer or 80p in the winter to stay for one to four hours in town centre car parks.

Each resident incentive card would be valid for life, and would link to an individual digital account, enabling holders to get email and text updates about other discounts which may become available to holders.

Residents could order cards online for a one-off free of £2.50, which would be solely to cover the borough council's costs of buying and posting out the cards.

Other recommendations are:

Retain all non-fee-paying car parks, except South Quay, to continue to provide this option for motorists. Investigate other ways to offset their operational costs, such as renting out space for concessions.

Provide more options for commuters by converting to permit parking the South Quay car park and the Greyfriars South car park. Permits would be interchangeable between the car parks and existing permit car park at Fullers Hill.

Maintain the current £7 charge (or £4 for Fullers Hill car park) for parking all day in town centre car parks

Maintain the current winter charges at the Beach Coach Station car park, meaning car drivers can still park for the day for £1.

Introduce a new £1 overnight charge, in line with most other councils, running from 6pm to 8am in town centre car parks, and from 9pm to 8am in seafront car parks.

Change the operational period of town centre car parks to 8am to 6pm, instead of the current 8am to 4pm.

Increase the maximum Sunday charge for town centre car parks by 50p: to £2.50.

Increase the summer charges for short-stay seafront car parking by 10p: to £1.90 for one to two hours and to £2.40 for over two hours.

Increase the hourly winter charge at short-stay seafront car parks to 80p.

Increase the summer charges for all long-stay seafront car parking and summer car parking at the Beach Coach Station car park to £4.50 for up to four hours and £7 for over four hours. The summer tariffs for lorries and coaches at Beach Coach Station would also increase.