Plans to give users of Stafford’s new leisure centre a £1 parking refund have been scrapped – but the proposed charges have now been cut.

Stafford council’s cabinet yesterday decided to reduce the parking charge at the new centre in Lammascote Road to 80p for two hours.

It had earlier been ann-ounced that people parking for an hour would get a full £1 reimbursed when they used the centre and £1 back from the £1.80 charge for one to two hours.

Council leader Councillor Judith Dalgarno proposed the new charge and said that the rates of £2.40 for two to three hours and £3 for up to four hours would remain.

The council had been concerned that shoppers would use the car park if there were no charges.

Councillor Dalgarno said the scheme to reimburse centre users would have caused administrative difficulties.

“I hope that the public will respect the fact that this is a car park for use by leisure centre users. We will have to trust the public,” she added.

Cabinet member for leis-ure Councillor Mike Smith said it was a much more sensible and less bureaucratic system to reduce the charge to 80p for two hours.

Councillor Dalgarno said two hours would be sufficient time for people to use the facilities. She warned people overstaying would be fined.

Councillor Mike Heenan, cabinet member for resources, said he hoped the reduction would encourage people to use the centre when it opened in April.

The cabinet agreed to Councillor Smith’s suggestion that the charging system for the car park be reviewed after six months in case of any abuse.

l The cabinet has denied that a capital S has been missed off the centre’s new name sign. The all lower case sign “stafford leisure centre” has just gone up on the building. Councillor Heenan said that it was intentional “modern” design.