A parking charge shake-up is set to happen in Ledbury, with the market town’s car parks being banded into 'zones', with different charges and different regulations.

Currently all of Ledbury’s town centre car parks class as long stay, but this will change next month.

The changes, which are part of a county-wide parking review by Herefordshire Council, are set to come into force on May 3, or shortly afterwards.

Then Bridge Street car park will be classed as “zone three”, for “work and stay” purposes, where charges will be £1 per hour or £2.50 all day.

Bye Street and Lawnside car parks will be “zone 2”, for visits, where the charges will be 50 per hour; £1.50 for two hours; £2.50 for three hours and £3.50 for all day. But motorists will have a three hour limit on Bye Street.

St Katherine’s will be a “zone 1” car park, as the “central” car park for Ledbury, and charges here will be £1.20 per hour or £6.00 all day.

The changes will see rises in parking fees in Ledbury. Currently on St Katherine’s, for example, the charge is £1 per hour, up to a maximum of £4 all day.

The council will “extend the off peak season ticket to be available to all market towns and offer “an off peak hours season ticket which allows parking in any car park between 5pm and 9am for £75 per year or £25 per quarter.

Sunday parking and evening parking in Ledbury will remain free.

Herefordshire Council: Charges for parking were last subject to a general increase in 2016, and whilst there have been some other localised changes since then tariffs have remained the same.

But these changes may not be cast in stone, and may be subject to review.

A council spokesman said: “Should we need to conduct a review of how the new system is working in the near future then we will do that.”