SHOPPERS could get half-price parking in York city centre on Tuesdays under a scheme to go before city councillors next week.

Another option to encourage more people into the city centre and boost trade is to make the old Kent Street Coach Park, near the Barbican a shoppers’ car park.

But a leading retailer in the city has warned the plans are unlikely to attract shoppers into York as the cut-price rates will only apply to certain car parks at certain times and can only be used by motorists paying by mobile phone and not using the ticket machines.

“I think it’s too complicated,” said Adam Sinclair, chairman of York Business Pride and owner of Mulberry Hall, in Stonegate.

“People come to York to relax. They are going to be put off by the complexity of whether they’ve got a telephone, the right hours, the right months, and so on. We are in a recession and a very competitive world. We need to make it easy for people to come.”

Councillors will decide on Tuesday whether to implement either or both of the options.

Under the “Half Price Tuesday” scheme, the maximum price in every city centre car park except Bootham, Castle, Piccadilly and Fossbank would be cut from £9 to £4.50 for mobile phone users between 10 am and 3pm on Tuesdays in October and November.

In a council report Damon Copperthwaite, assistant director of city strategy, writes that Tuesday is the quietest day of the week for parking and the scheme could cost the council £8,000 in lost parking revenue. Councillors will also decide whether to open up Kent Street Coach Park to cars at 70p an hour, the same price as motorists pay at Foss Bank car park.

The report states that this could provide 80 car spaces and raise £20,000 in three months. However, the council would have to spend £35,000 to install new ticket machines, marking out car spaces and other work.