A council leader who was grilled for three hours about increased parking charges at a public meeting admitted communication was not as good as it could have been.

Cllr Matt Boughton (Con), leader of Tonbridge and Malling, volunteered to appear after protests were organised in Tonbridge when his council introduced Sunday parking charges for the first time and extended evening parking charges from 6pm till 8pm.

Graham Simmonds was one of the first to complain in April before the decision was taken and he organised and chaired the meeting at the Tonbridge Castle chambers on Wednesday.

He said: “Of course the decision had already been taken and Cllr Boughton wasn’t going to change that.

“But part of the problem was that residents felt that they hadn’t been listened to and the council was aloof and remote from the public.

“Cllr Boughton admitted the council’s communication hadn’t been as good as it might have been, but by coming along and giving us so much of his time, I think he gave us encouragement that that might change in the future.”

Cllr Boughton promised to stay until the last question was answered - and that was three hours later.

Not everyone was happy. Kay Sinclair, who had helped organise the protests, said she felt that like many politicians Cllr Boughton had deftly brushed many challenges aside.

However, she took heart from a promise he made to review the new charges in a year’s time if businesses, organisations or clubs could show they had been adversely affected by the new fees, as many feared they would be.

But she said: “Of course, that does put it all back on the public.”

However, she conceded that visitors to Tonbridge from outside the town would probably still come. It was groups meeting in the evening that might be affected.

John Winchester was one of 65 people in the audience and he asked several questions of the leader.

He wanted to know what analysis the council had done on the potential loss to trade for businesses.

Cllr Boughton responded that it could not be proven either way what the effect would be, but that every response to a public consultation on the new charges had been read and considered. The proposals were a mixture of benefits and drawbacks.

Mr Winchester asked whether some of the “misleading” statements made by councillors supporting the charges on the night when the issue was discussed in the council chamber were fair, particularly a comparison made by one councillor between Tonbridge charges with those in Brighton.

There had also been repeated accusations that 1,000 people who signed an online petition against the new charges lived abroad - in fact the number was 15.

Cllr Boughton said he could not take responsibility for other councillors’ remarks.

He said he would not defend a councillor making a misleading statement, but ultimately none of those statements had influenced his personal decision.

Mr Winchester also asked, given the fact such a large proportion of people who had responded to the consultation had opposed the plans (96%) - and yet the charges were adopted anyway - whether Cllr Boughton was concerned that future consultations would be impacted.

Cllr Boughton said the council had at least amended its proposals in light of the comments received and he gave the concession of 30 minutes free parking at Martins Square as an example, but he agreed that future consultations needed to get more into the nuance of issues and that Yes/No questions did not do this sufficiently.

Mr Simmonds said after the meeting, that the car park issue was now resting until the review in a year’s time, but he anticipated the council’s plans to demolish the Angel Centre and refashion the town centre would be the next big talking point.

He said: “That has even more potential to affect businesses and residents than the parking charges.”

But he said he was optimistic the council had learnt a lesson and would be prepared to pay greater heed to residents in future.