A CONTROVERSIAL increase in Blackburn town centre car parking charges is to go ahead despite warnings from a Tory councillors and the area's business improvement district manager that it will hit footfall.

But following a special 'Call In' committee of Blackburn with Darwen implementation of the rise will be delayed by a month.

The review was called by Conservative Cllr Mark Russel who told the meeting in Thursday night: "I want to see Blackburn town centre thriving not become a pound shop paradise."

And he quoted an email from Catherine Price, the manager of Blackburn Town Centre Business Improvement District (BID) in support of his call to scrap the 30p rise and abolition of the separate cheaper tariffs for Sundays.

It said: "I just wanted to confirm that on behalf of the businesses in the town centre I share your concerns about the potential detrimental impact of the proposed increase, and the disappointment that there was no consultation with businesses regarding the proposal, nor does there appear to have been consideration of the impact on the town centre and its businesses."

But borough environment boss Jim Smith defended the rise and said the council had to balance its books and said: "I believe this is a fair increase that people can afford."

Labour councillors on the committee accused Cllr Russell of failing to produce evidence that the rise would hit footfall in the town centre and hit the number of people using its shops.

He replied: "It is simple economics. If you increase prices demand falls."

But the authority's growth boss Quesir Mahmood produced figures from the council's digital parking machines which showed that after the hike in parking fees in December 2018 the number of transactions only fell from 568,934 in 2018/2019 to 547,600 in 2019/2020 even with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the last six weeks of the financial year.

He added that in 2022/23 there were 512,821 transactions and that between April 1 and December 31 last year there had been 406,898 which led to an anticipated 550,000 transactions in the year - higher than 2019/20.

Cllr Mahmood accepted that the council had not specifically consulted with the BID and its member businesses on the proposed rise but would do so.

The Labour-dominated committee voted by six voted to one to confirm the rise.

Council operations director Martin Eden said the new charges would now be delayed from the original implementation date of February 5 to the first Monday in March.

Ms Price said after the meeting: "I am disappointed by the decision but the council has promised to consult with us on any issues in the future that might affect footfall. That is positive."