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Free evening parking could be introduced in Medway town centres in
a bid to help struggling small businesses.

Leaders of the main political parties have vowed to review the
evening fees at council-run car parks that are "crippling" shops,
bars and restaurants.

Hard-pressed motorists have to pay to park in most of the Towns'
car parks until 10pm.

But the man who has led Medway Council for eight years has said
he will consider reversing the charges if re-elected on May 5.

After coming under pressure to throw traders a lifeline at a
Question Time-style debate, Rodney Chambers said he would "look at"
reducing the hours of fees.

The pre-vote hustings was hosted by Medway Messenger
at Kent University's Chatham Maritime site, in conjunction with the
Centre for Journalism.

KM Group political editor Paul Francis chaired the debate,
between Cllr Chambers (Con), Paul Godwin (Lab), Geoff Juby (Lib
Dem), Trish Marchant (Grn) and professor Tim Luckhurst, principal
of the centre and former newspaper editor.

Among the hot topics raised by audience members was the plight
of small businesses.

Cllr Godwin said: "We are committed to reducing the excessive
hours we charge for parking. As small businesses struggle to
survive and offer longer opening hours, we are offering a
disincentive to park at night.

"We need to help keep shops alive. If elected, we will review
that very early on to bring those hours back to a sensible
level."

Cllr Chambers denied evening fees are "Draconian".

He said: "We are quite happy to have a look at it, but they were
introduced as a way of controlling the parking so there are enough
spaces for people who want them."

But Mr Luckhurst said: "I have never had a problem finding a
space in Medway in the evening. The real problem is small
businesses are being crippled by traffic paralysis in the Towns,
especially Chatham."

Ms Marchant added: "We need to help our night-time economy grow
by allowing traffic to flow through Chatham rather than diverting
customers away."

Cllr Juby said some businesses are going bust by landlords
charging unacceptable levels of rent.