Motorists are to face a hike in car parking charges for the first time in two years in Basildon - but the town is still the cheapest in Essex.

All town centre car parks owned by Town Centre Management will see a rise of up to 20p in charges from September 1.

But Jim Furnival, of Town Centre Management, claims his car parks will remain at the lowest possible price to keep business flowing.

Car parks affected by the increase include the multi-storey in Great Oaks, the flat site along the road opposite the fire station and the car park serving the Toys R Us store.

The Westgate Park and Savacentre car parks along with all Basildon Council facilities are to be spared the change.

Mr Furnival said: "We have left these charges untouched for two years now. This is only a marginal increase which has been made necessary as our expenses have gone up. This is the only way to get them back.

"We do try to keep our car parking prices the cheapest in Essex if we can. We carry out research to see how much all the car parks within a 25-mile radius are charging - we do things properly. I believe we will still be the cheapest in Essex - apart from the free ones which is not possible here.

"We want to encourage more shoppers to the town and more cars into our 5,000 parking spaces."

Signs are already displayed around the car parks advising of the change coming into effect next week.

Only drivers staying in Basildon for less than four hours will be affected by the price hike.

Long stay charges for those staying for more than four hours will stay unchanged.

The town centre sees about 200,000 cars passing through its car parks each month.

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