PLANS to do away with free parking on Saturdays at Test Valley Borough Council's Duttons Road offices in Romsey have been unveiled.

It is in its very early stages and has to be discussed first by the council's overview and scrutiny committee on Wednesday.

If the panel is in favour, it will send a recommendation to the December meeting of the Borough executive.

But the move to put up the 'pay and display' meters for the 74 spaces - not available on weekdays when they are used by council personnel and visitors - has already begun to spark opposition.

"I would be absolutely opposed to charging for these spaces. It would be totally counter-productive," said Romsey councillor Mark Cooper.

It was Councillor Cooper who in the 1980s first persuaded the council to make the spaces available to members of the public when they were not required for council business.

"Until then, the gates were locked on Saturdays and no one could get in. But now many of those spaces are used by people who work in the town centre businesses.

"I occasionally use Duttons Road on Saturdays and it is noticeable that the cars that are parked there early in the morning are still there very much later in the day.

"The use of these spaces for longer stay parking releases spaces in the centre of town. Those town centre spaces are used by shoppers and there is quick a quick turnover, which means they can be used by several different people during the course of a day.

The idea is one of several outlined in the Borough Council's proposals for future work programmes for parking and traffic management under its Off-Street Parking Places Order, which is due for review in February.

Another proposal is for the Romsey Sports Centre car park to become a long stay car park from Mondays to Fridays.

It is at present being promoted as a car park for use by commuters and shoppers in the run-up to Christmas, although it is kept available for sports centre users on Saturdays. In the longer term, there is a possibility that it could become a long stay low cost commuter car park.

Principal engineer (transport) David Wilson stressed that the suggestions were not definite proposals.

However, if introduced, he said, the charges would be in line with Romsey's other medium stay car parks.

On the question of the sports centre, he confirmed that ideas of providing security in the shape of CCTV cameras and possibly a park and ride facility would be put to the council if it became a firm proposal.