Under a new parking strategy the council approved last month, people of that age group lost the ability to park free at most metered off-street car parks, but councillors yesterday said they had not put enough consideration into the detail of the strategy.
Under the new rules, people aged over 75 would receive free parking for up to four hours in all areas, apart from George St, the council's Frederick St car park and metered off-street parks.
But Cr Neil Collins said at a full meeting of the council yesterday people had complained to him they needed the free off-street metered parks they had access to at the railway station and the library.
Cr Michael Guest said he did not think the issue had been considered in as much detail as was necessary.
Responding to questions, transportation planning manager Don Hill said he did not think changing the policy would have a big impact and, while the council voted for the strategy, it sent the over-75s aspect of it back to the strategy working party for further consideration.
• The single transferable vote (STV) electoral system made it through the final hurdle of a full council meeting yesterday, although six out of 15 councillors made it clear they do not support the system.
The Local Government Act 2001 required the council to make a decision by September 12, if it wanted to change the electoral system before the 2010 council election.
Yesterday, councillors voted 9-6 to approve a decision made last week by an extraordinary meeting of the finance and strategy committee in favour of STV, over returning to the first-past-the-post (FPP) system.
