Midsomer Norton’s car park looks like a ‘ghost town’ after the council started charging for the previously free parking, a local councillor has said.

Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) Council introduced parking charges to the town’s South Road car park on March 4.

The charges are similar to what’s been rolled out in Bath where fees vary depending on how polluting a vehicle is.

Taking a picture of the almost empty car park on Friday, March 7, local councillor Shaun Hughes (Midsomer Norton North, Independent) said: “I have never seen the car park this empty. Turning us into a ghost town.”

Meanwhile, the disused Argos car park was packed on March 7
Meanwhile, the disused Argos car park was packed on March 7 (Shaun Hughes)

He added: “Meanwhile the side roads, cul-de-sacs, disused Argos car park and sports centre are overflowing as high street staff cannot afford the charges to park all day.”

Mr Hughes has been a vocal opponent on the council towards the introduction of charges, which have also been brought in to the Church Street and Waterloo Road car parks in Radstock. It is free to park for up to two hours, but four hours will cost somewhere between £1.20 and £1.80, depending on the emissions of an engine.

An emissions-based parking charge policy has been in place at council-owned car parks in Bath since September 2023 in order to help tackle the city’s poor air quality problem. But locals, who rely on cars to get around rural areas, say towns across the Somer Valley do not experience the same issues in poor air quality and the move has proved to be highly controversial.

B&NES Council had planned to introduce CCTV and street lighting to the car parks after introducing the charges using a “parking reinvestment fund”, but this has been now postponed by a year to make a £210,000 budget saving for the 2025/26 budget.