THE WIDELY opposed car park charges initially planned to come into force in October will now not be implemented until the new year, it was revealed this week.

Monmouthshire County Council are introducing pay-and-display machines at Cinderhill Street car park and are upping the current rates at Glendower Street and Nelson Street - but a series of delays costing the council thousands of pounds has put back the scheme until January.

A Transport department spokesman said: "Obviously the whole decision process was delayed by the scrutiny committee and then the referral back to cabinet. Then we had a couple of IT problems with the machines.

"Now we're just waiting for delivery of those machines from the company but it looks like it will be mid-January before the changes are in place."

He added that the loss in revenue had not yet been finally calculated but that a report would be presented to cabinet in December outlining potential cost-cutting measures or price increase elsewhere to balance the budget.

In the meantime, new charges are set to be introduced at the Byefield Lane car park in Abergavenny - the first to be effected by the plans - from next month.

New countywide measures will also shortly be in place giving police more powers to combat anti-social behaviour and speeding in car parks. The county council added: "The machines at Byefield lane are in place now and we are drafting a notice at the moment for the anti-social behaviour measures and the Byefield Lane charges. We hope to have those in place before Christmas."