Parking charges in Douglas will increase this week.

For one hour, they will rise from £2.20 to £2.30 and for up to six it will go from £4.70 to £4.90.

The Sunday £2 charge will remain the same.

On Friday Chester Street car park, which is run by the Department of Infrastructure, will revert to pay and display on levels two to six – level one will remain a disc zone for those people attending the vaccination hub.

Douglas Council is also increasing its tariffs in the Shaw’s Brow and Bottleneck car parks.

Douglas East MHK Clare Barber says she hopes people won’t be put off by higher tariffs as a greener solution could be on the horizon.

She said: ‘I think it’s positive there is one floor still being retained as a disc zone, not least so because we’ve now got the doctors surgery back in Chester Street and I think that’s an important element to make sure people can access GPs and that to me is a core and fundamental principle.’

‘I do think we have to be aware and monitoring the use of those spaces and really understand what the impact is on our towns.

‘From my perspective, longer term, I’d love to see somewhere with comprehensive park and ride services, where people can hire some bikes.

‘I think there are some things that will provide some really nice opportunities for people to get more into active travel, but that’s going to take a little bit of time and until we’ve got that my concern is that if you shut off the parking opportunities in the short term, what we’ll end up with is no reason to actively travel in in the future because businesses won’t be there.’

The MHK stressed it was important to ‘strike a balance’ and encourage people to walk more but not ‘force people to go straight online’ to shop instead.

‘We’ve got brilliant local shops and local retailers really putting together, some from bigger brands but then some really lovely local boutique offerings and it would be a shame if we lost those elements because it was just too difficult,’ Mrs Barber added.

‘I’m cautiously comfortable with the current position, it has to be carefully monitored because there are some significant changes in terms of pressures on people.

‘I’m under no illusion that those rising costs in terms of home costs and employment salaries are not going up and realistically at the moment can’t go up in line with inflation because it’s just rising too fast.

‘It’s really important that we support local business.

‘They’re providing a really brilliant local resource and there’s that extra value that they bring to our economy through employment, through renting out the buildings and what I wouldn’t want to end up with is a ghost town.’