Renfrewshire Council is working on a “parking strategy” in a bid to tackle an ongoing income shortfall in that area, a senior officer has said.

The issue was described as one of the “main drivers” of a projected overspend of around £2.3million in infrastructure, land and environment in a report to Thursday’s finance, resources and customer services policy board.

The local authority previously scrapped parking charges during the Covid-19 lockdown, while Free for Three – which allows drivers to park in specific car parks for three hours at no charge – was introduced in 2019.

However, such initiatives have in turn played a part in a shortfall of income in this area.

Councillor Alison-Ann Dowling, Labour group finance spokesperson, asked at the board: “On the parking income shortfalls, what is our planned response to that?”

Alastair MacArthur, the council’s director of finance and resources, responded: “There has been a shortfall in parking income, linked predominantly to, obviously there was a major change in behaviour linked to the Covid pandemic and decisions taken by the council to suspend parking [charges] and have pilot parking charge arrangements in place.

“My understanding is that the environment, housing and infrastructure service are currently working on a parking strategy that will seek to address that income shortfall that the council’s been carrying for a couple of years.

“That will be coming to a future board cycle, likely it will be the ILE (infrastructure, land and environment) board, but I am certainly aware that the service are working on a parking strategy that will aim to address that recurring shortfall position.”