A council is preparing to fast-track changes to a number of its car parks - and among the first to suffer will be disabled drivers.

Blue Badge holders will no longer be able to park for free as part of plans by Tonbridge and Malling council to install an experimental ANPR system at two of its car parks - at Haysden Country Park and at Western Road in Borough Green.

The automatic number plate reader cameras will be able to accurately determine the parking fee due based on the length of stay but cannot distinguish between regular parkers and Blue Badge holders.

The cameras will be installed before the end of the year for a trial one-year period, and if considered successful, ANPR cameras could be rolled out across all the council’s car parks - with the implication that Blue Badge holders will then not be able to park for free in any council car park.

The scheme is one of three new strands to parking policy that officers are asking the council’s cabinet to fast-track when they meet next Tuesday.

Installing the ANPR cameras, new barriers, payment points and signage at the two car parks will cost £70,000.

In addition, there will recurring costs to renew or repair the equipment expected to average £5,144 a year, plus a one-off fee of £5,000 to create an options report and specifications for the job.

The officers’ report suggests there may be “potential additional revenue from better management of parking restrictions“ but does not estimate what they might be. It does warn that the council will be losing £2,800 every year - the interest it would have earned had it left the £70k invested.

Officers also warned there was a risk of increased maintenance costs due to vandalism or damage.

The second decision that cabinet members will be asked to make concerns a 30-space extension to the Bailey Bridge East car park at Aylesford where it plans to spend £300,000 creating a proper surface, marking out parking bays, adding lighting, extending the CCTV system, and installing pay and display machines.

The scheme is a promise made when the council decided to start charging at the two Bailey Bridge car parks, as part of its new parking strategy adopted in April.

At the time, the cabinet member for finance and housing, Cllr Kim Tanner (Con), said the council had to look to increasing its revenue stream in the face of budget pressures.

Council officers estimate that additional parking income of £18,550 per year will be achieved, meaning the scheme will take more than 16 years to pay back the cost.

But in addition, the ongoing cost of renewing the equipment averages out at £2,600 a year, and there is the lost interest income from the investment of £6,400 a year.

Finally, the cabinet is to be asked to approve the expenditure of £160,000 to upgrade other car parks and on-street parking bays across the borough to a standard fit for the introduction of pay and display charges.

They include Tonbridge Castle Gateway car park - where a new pay and display machine will be introduced, and on street parking in West Malling’s High Street and Swan Street with new pay and display machines.

In the Bailey Bridge West car park in Aylesford it will pay for new pay and display machines, but also drainage improvement works.

Martin Square car park in Larkfield will get new pay and display machines and new CCTV

And in West Malling short stay car park new pay and display machines will replace aging existing ones.

However, Avebury Avenue will see the little used on-street pay and display machines removed.

Over time the equipment will need to be renewed and the average annual cost of that is expected to be £13,350. In addition, the council will lose £6,400 in interest each year.

However, the changes are expected to bring in additional parking fees of almost £60,000 a year.

The cabinet will meet in the council chamber at the Tonbridge and Malling council offices in Gibson Drive, Kingshill, at 7.30pm on Tuesday. The meeting will be webcast live.