THE Press is demanding Fife Council breathe new life into Dunfermline town centre by scrapping their controversial Sunday parking charges. 

WHEN councillors agreed in September 2016 to bring in the fees, the then depute leader and now MP, Lesley Laird, said Fife was “one of the few councils that hadn’t already introduced parking charges on Sunday”.

However, out of the 20 local authorities we contacted last week, only seven currently charge for parking on that day and one of them, Stirling Council, is all but free apart from two car parks.

There are no Sunday charges at council car parks in towns and cities including Perth, Stirling, Falkirk, Paisley, Livingston, Linlithgow, Largs, Irvine, Motherwell, Airdrie, Kilmarnock, Cumnock, Arbroath, Brechin, Broughty Ferry, Alloa, Haddington, Musselburgh and Dumfries.

In fact, a number of local authorities don’t charge for parking at all, on any days of the week.

On the seventh day you’ll pay to park in most, but not all, council car parks in cities such as Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow.

And it’s still free in the capital. Councillors in Edinburgh agreed in 2016 to introduce Sunday parking charges between 12.30pm and 6pm in the city centre but they’re yet to be implemented. Part of a bigger raft of proposed traffic measures, it could be 12-18 months before they come in.

You don’t have to pay to park in Paisley on a Saturday or Sunday, places like Alloa, Dumfries, Motherwell and Livingston have free parking all week and, as well as Sundays, parking in Falkirk is also free after 3pm during the week.

Fifteen out of 20 local authority car parks in Inverness are free on the seventh day, Dundee typically charges between 1-6pm, Aberdeen has some Sunday parking charges between 1-5pm and are currently running a trial giving free parking in the city centre after 5pm.

There is no charge for on-street parking in Glasgow’s council car parks on Sundays, with the exception of a number of streets and zones in and around the city centre.

The picture across Scotland:

Perth and Kinross Council – no Sunday charges.

Stirling Council – no Sunday charges, apart from two car parks in Callander.

Angus Council – no Sunday charges.

Falkirk Council – no Sunday charges.

Renfrewshire Council – no parking charges.

Clackmannanshire Council – no parking charges.

Dumfries and Galloway Council – no parking charges.

East Lothian Council – no Sunday parking charges.

North Lanarkshire Council – no parking charges.

South Lanarkshire Council – charges on a Sunday.

West Lothian Council – no parking charges.

Highland Council – charges on a Sunday, mostly in Fort William, Skye, Aviemore and Inverness.

North Ayrshire Council – no parking charges.

South Ayrshire Council – in the limited areas they have charges, they also apply on Sunday.

East Ayrshire Council – no Sunday parking charges.

City of Edinburgh Council – Sunday parking charges still 12-18 months away.

Aberdeenshire Council – no Sunday parking charges.

Aberdeen City Council – charges on a Sunday, with some exceptions.

Dundee City Council – charges on a Sunday.

Glasgow City Council – no charge for on-street parking on Sundays, with some exceptions.