Sunday parking charges are set to be introduced in car parks in Axminster, Ottery St Mary and Honiton, and evening charges will be brought in across the district.

East Devon District Council's present car parking tariffs treat Sundays as a normal trading day in coastal towns, along with Colyton and Lympstone. But for historic reasons, the council has never asked for Sunday payments in car parks in Ottery St Mary, Honiton and Axminster.

On Tuesday, the Car Parking Task and Finish Forum backed proposals from officers for this to end as "there is no logical reason to continue with this no charges on Sundays policy in these towns".

The councillors also agreed to introduce a nominal £1 evening charge between 8pm and 6am at car parks in seven of the towns in East Devon.

Andrew Ennis, service lead for car parks, told the committee that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were seeing levels of commercial activity in towns across the district on Sundays that was largely not happening in the past.

He said that while they had no data on car park use on Sundays in Ottery St Mary, Honiton and Axminster and it was extremely difficult to estimate the level of revenue that the council might accrue from the introduction of Sunday charges, it was clear that a significant number of cars were making use of these facilities on Sundays and that some local businesses and leisure facilities were open.

He said: "It would therefore be reasonable to suggest that charges should be imposed so that customers using our car parking facilities are then paying towards their maintenance and management…

"Members may take a view that there is no logical reason to continue with this no charges on Sundays policy in these towns and it might be reasonable to say that the time has come to charge in the same way we do in the coastal towns."

Cllr Eleanor Rylance said that she supported trialling this, adding: "If we are only not charging for historic reasons, then trial it and see what works. We don't know what next few years will look like, and we can revise it if it doesn't work."

Cllr Olly Davey added: "I don't want to have anomalies and it is only fair we have a level field across the area. I appreciate there will be howls of outrage about this and they will say that it will spell the end of businesses in town centre, but I don't see why people in one place have to pay and not in another."

Cllr Andrew Moulding, who represents Axminster, said that he would not be favour of the change, and it would be very detrimental to those people going to church or using pubs and restaurants on a Sunday lunch.

But the committee voted by four votes to two, with two abstentions, in favour of the proposal to introduce Sunday charges to the three towns.

The decision followed the forum backing plans to introduce an evening parking charge – initially at a flat rate of just £1 – to make a proportionate contribution to management, enforcement and wear and tear costs associated with the car parks.

Mr Ennis said that the short stay car parking tariff currently allows members of the public to park free of charge between 8pm and 6am, but they knew the evening period was sometimes busy.

He said that, again, there were historical reasons why the council didn't make evening charges, and that any new charges would have to be modest so that the council doesn't "look greedy" or drive people into parking for free in residents streets.

He added: "The nominal charge would cover the upkeep. £1 won't be disproportionate to the benefits, but there is always the risk it is seen as a tax on businesses."

Car parks which will be affected by the new evening charge are the Lace Walk short stay car park in Honiton, West Street short stay car park in Axminster, Orchard car park in Seaton, Central car park in Beer, Mill Street, the Ham East and West and the Roxburgh car park in Sidmouth, Rolle Mews car park in Budleigh Salterton and the London Inn car park, Imperial Road car park and Exmouth Pavilion car park in Exmouth.

The forum voted against making any immediate decisions over the future of several 'loss making' car parks in the district, whereby they either generate no income or less than their costs.

They called for the full details on costs for each of the 15 car parks to be brought back to them at a future meeting so they could examine each car park on its own merits before deciding whether to introduce car parking charges, or offer the management of the facilities to parish councils if they wished to keep the car parks free.