A decision on whether to introduce parking charges at Heybridge Basin's Daisy Meadow car park has been put off until after the May elections.

Heybridge Basin Parish Council (HBPC), created in 2019, does not currently have the full quota of councillors elected to it, with vacant seats up for grabs on 6 May and currently filled by two district councillors 'drafted in' to carry out the roles until the local elections can be held. For this reason, a meeting of HBPC on Tuesday (2 March) decided that a decision on the possible car park charges should be put off until then.

HBPC Chairman, Councillor Michael Edwards, said: "It's a decision that needs to be voted on by an elected council."

The parish clerk, John Watson, has been tasked with investigating the introduction of parking charges at Daisy Meadow and will now report back on his findings in May. He told Tuesday's meeting that the matter was "more complex than imagined".

Mr Watson has also been looking at the possibility of public toilets for the car park, given the issues the Basin sometimes suffers when visitors cannot find the facilities they require.

The meeting also heard from Councillor Keith Watson that last weekend the better weather brought more visitors to the area, despite the current closure of Daisy Meadow car park - and with take-aways available from both the pubs in the Basin but no public toilets, there had been some issues.

Cllr Watson said: "It gave rise to some unfortunate behaviour, as you can imagine."

The meeting also decided to keep the current lockdown closure of the car park in place for the time being, with the situation to be reviewed at the council's next meeting in April. The car park was closed in January.

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