Free parking in Newport's council-owned car parks will not become a permanent arrangement.
The city council has said its car parks will be free of charge in December and January on weekends to support shoppers and businesses in the run-up to Christmas and during the January sales.
At a full council meeting on Tuesday, Conservative group leader Matthew Evans said the move is “very welcome”.
But he questioned if it is now time “to reintroduce two hours free car parking” in council-owned car parks permanently.
Council leader, Cllr Jane Mudd, said that “everything that we do has a cost associated with it”.
“We cannot support free parking as a permanent fixture,” Cllr Mudd said.
“We have already been through the issues around that and the case around that.
“However at this difficult and unprecedented time, we can try to do whatever we can to support families, individuals and businesses to get through this, and that’s why the decision was made for a limited period only to provide free parking in council-owned car parks on a Saturday and Sunday in December and January.”
Cllr Evans said he ‘disagreed’ that the council could not introduce free parking because of cost.
“The cost of not doing it is going to be critical,” he said.
Car parks included in the free weekend parking offer in December and January are Kingsway and Park Square multi-stories as well as the open air pay and display sites in Hill Street, Stow Hill, Faulkner Road, Riverfront, Emlyn Street and Maindee.
