Councillors have effectively handed the decision to reinstate off-street parking charges in South Lanarkshire to the Scottish Government.
Charges now won't be reintroduced until non-essential retail can be allowed to open, after plans to bring them back from April 1 were pushed back.
Labour group leader Cllr Joe Fagan (East Kilbride Central North) proposed the move as the original recommendation assumed "we would be in a better place in terms of Covid".
Parking in car parks managed by the council have been free since March 2020 following the UK-wide coronavirus lockdown.
Non-essential retail is not due to open until April 26 under plans announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon but that could change if improvements in the coronavirus situation don't continue.
At Wednesday's (March 10) executive committee, councillors agreed to all of the recommendation from the council's cross-party officer/member parking review group but felt it was best to postpone reintroducing charges.
As a result, payment app RingGo will still be introduced at all of the council’s existing charging locations, in preparation for charges resuming, and initiatives to encourage shoppers into Hamilton town centre and The Village in East Kilbride will be trialled.
Chair of the parking review group, Cllr John Anderson (East Kilbride Central South) said: "It was my pleasure to chair this officer-member group.
"Thankfully, it was a short life working group and it was good to see that everyone put aside their political differences right from the very start.
"I think we reached a very successful conclusion for the communities we serve."
Originally, the recommendation made by the parking review group assumed the coronavirus situation in Scotland would have allowed for the reopening of non-essential retail in time for the new financial year.
Cllr Fagan said: "It can be a very emotive issue but when we looked into the detail we came up with quite modest changes, but changes I think would have an impact on people's behaviour.
"At that point, the expectation was that come the turn of the financial year we would be in a better place in terms of Covid and that we would start to see the reopening of the economy."
Executive director for community and enterprise Michael McGlynn said it would be better to implement the recommendation as a package rather than hold off on one of them.
He added: "Through those discussions, which I would have to say was really quite constructive, very positive and very productive, [the parking review group] generated 11 options.
"The group agreed that the pre-Covid parking arrangements were appropriate and that charges should be reintroduced for off street parking.
"A number of changes were proposed and are now being recommended. For Hamilton, it was agreed to reintroduce pay on foot in the Duke Street Car Park and introduce free after 3pm in that same car park.
"These proposals would assist the businesses in the town centre.
"In a similar vein, it was considered that The Village area would benefit from a period of free parking up to one hour and that would relate to both on and off street parking."
However, councillors disagreed charging should be reinstated from April 1 and East Kilbride West councillor Monique McAdams argued they should "take into account the difficulty our small to medium enterprises have been put under through the pandemic".
Further reviews of parking in Lanark, Cambuslang, Rutherglen, Strathaven, Blantyre, Larkhall, Biggar and Carluke will be undertaken in consultation with local councillors.
