CHARGES at a massive council car park in Southampton will come crashing down from Saturday in a bid to win customers.

Council bosses are slashing charges at the 12-storey Marlands car park by almost two thirds.

An all-day stay in the multistorey car park will be reduced from £14 to just £5 a day. Other charges will also be reduced.

Parking chiefs said an over capacity of parking in the city has led to the 837 space car park being underused.

The New Year boost for city shoppers comes after last year’s price reductions of up to 50 per cent in many of the council’s car parks.

It comes after city parking chiefs were branded scrooges for not following councils in Eastleigh and Winchester, who were offering free parking at all their car parks on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Monday and Tuesday.

The council’s parking boss, councillor Matt Dean, said: “At a time when most are increasing their fees, Southampton City Council is doing all it can to continue to reduce car parking charges and attract shoppers and visitors into the city.

“This will be a big boost not only to shoppers and visitors, but also to city centre businesses which will benefit from more people parking in an affordable city centre car park.”

Council leader Royston Smith added it underlined the council’s commitment to lead the city out of recession into economic prosperity.

Parking charges at the Marlands will be cut from £3 to £2.50 for up to three hours, from £5.30 to £3.50 for up to five hours, and from £10.50 to £5 for up to seven hours.

The council made a £2.6m profit from its off-street car parks in 2009/10 from income of £6.2m, including penalty charges. Profits were down from £2.9m in 2008/9.