A TRUST set up to bring more trade to Marlborough and improve life for the residents is looking at ways of making parking cheaper and easier.

Members of the Marlborough Area Development Trust have been comparing the parking system in Marlborough, where kerbside parking in the town centre is restricted to half an hour, to Devizes where shoppers get one hour under the disc scheme.

Devizes also has a Park Free On Me scheme, launched by the Devizes Development Partnership, where participating shops, which have signs in their windows, reimburse the cost of parking when customers spend a minimum amount, usually £5 or £10.

In Marlborough the only shop operating a parking refund scheme is Somerfield, which pays the 35p ticket for High Street parkers who spend more than £10 in the store.

Marlborough Town Council asked MADT to investigate the disparity in parking between the two towns. The parking in both is run by Kennet District Council.

Coun David Parker said a scheme was needed to encourage more people to use the off-street car parks, rather than trying to get more traders to operate the same scheme as Somerfield, which encourages on-street parking in the central reservation.

Coun Parker said: "We need to encourage more people to park off-street rather than on-street and have a system where they get the cost of their tickets refunded by the retailers they use."

Trust chairman Melvyn Lillywhite said Kennet currently received £2,500 a year from Somerfield but the store would probably withdraw from the scheme if other traders wanted to take part.

Coun Joan Davies, the chairman of Savernake Parish Council, said there was no sense in trying to achieve the same parking system and charges across Kennet because at present there are different schemes in Devizes, Marlborough and in Pewsey, where parking is free.

Coun Parker said the fact that the High Street was packed with cars at 7pm, while the car parks probably had plenty of empty spaces, proved that there needed to be greater encouragement for drivers to park off-street.

Clyde Nancarrow, the chairman of the MADT tourism sub-group, said surveys had shown even at peak times there were empty spaces in the town's car parks if drivers would use them rather than trying to find street parking.