Car parking charges across Warwick district look set to be increased once again as the district council aims to increase its income.

Despite admitting that forecasts last year were "optimistically too high," a report set to be debated by councillors next week has recommended that charges across the council are put up.

If approved, Warwick residents could see prices at Castle Lane, The Butts, Priory Road and West Rock car parks increase from £1.30 to £1.40 for an hour and from £7 to £8 for the whole day.

The two-hours free parking after 6pm at St Nicholas Park is still expected to remain, but all other charges there are set to increase.

Price hikes are also proposed in other council car parks across the district.

The report - due to be discussed by Warwick District Council's cabinet on Thursday (November 2) - says the recommended increases are reasonable.

"Excessive increases could deter usage where the take up is discretionary," it says. 

"Customers may choose to use the service less frequently or use an alternative supplier where one is available."

If cabinet approves the new charges, these will then need to be voted on by the full council on November 15.

In December 2020 the council set a target of increasing income from fees and charges by 15 per cent by 2023/4. Then dropping to 10 per cent for the years after.

However, the council predicts it will fall short of its target from parking charges this year (£3,985,000) and bring in £3,825,000 from its car parks.

The aim for next year is to hit £4,041,000.

"Options for meeting the 10 per cent target were considered, including higher charges on parking, green waste or bereavement services," the report added.

"However, the judgement on each of these was that these prices were more than the market would likely to bear and could result in a loss of income and therefore are not recommended in this report."

At the start of 2022 the 30 minute fee and lower Sunday charges were scrapped across the district - much to the disgruntlement of locals. Meanwhile prices were frozen at the start of this year.

Last week it was revealed the council opted against a joint parking scheme for pensioners with Stratford-upon-Avon District Council.

When explaining the decision, council leader Cllr Ian Davison said: "There is a big financial squeeze on all councils and we have to look at where we can have income.

"In our medium term financial strategy, car parking income needs to go up.

"We are trying to move in the other direction so it would seem to be against what we are aiming to do."

See the full report here.