At Wood Street, Westgate Street and Dumfries Place car parks the tariffs have gone up to 80p for every 15 minutes, which amounts to £6.40 for two hours - up from £2.80 previously.

Following meetings between the council, Cardiff City Retail Partnership and NCP, and spurred on by a campaign in the local paper, NCP has agreed to charge £2 for an hour on Wednesdays and has also made some changes at weekends and on late night Thursdays. But Paul Williams, Cardiff's city centre manager, said there is still a lot of concern. "Cardiff is going though unprecedented change," he said. "There is a certain level to pay for a car park but this is excessive. It has an effect on footfall and ultimately business suffers.

"We need to extend Park & Ride facilities to have something to offer people."

Mark Nott, centre manager of Queens Arcade in the city centre, who also sits on the City Retail Partnership, said: "Of course there is the major impact of the St David's 2 development but there are a number of factors effecting trade and one is the charges. One of the other shopping centres has their own car park and they have benefitted by reducing their parking rates, but it is affecting the rest of the city."

NCP had made no comment by the time of going to press.

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