A REVISED version of West Somerset District Council's much maligned car parking strategy is already proving to be as unpopular as the first, with opponents criticising it for being based on out-of- date information. Graham Sizer, chairman of campaign group DIRECT, said he found it "extraordinary" the findings and recommendations within the report were based on the 2001-06 Local Transport Plan when the 2006 -2011 plan was already in print. He said the latest transport plan was fundamentally different to the one used by consultants Faber Maunsell to draft the parking strategy, which meant the report would be "out of date before the ink had dried". "Not only that, it has failed to address for the second time a glaring anomaly using a so-called daily count of car park usage provided by West Somerset District Council - the daily count for Clanville, one of the most contentious car parks in Minehead, missed out six of the first 12 days of August last year," Mr Sizer said. He said the council might well dismiss the "error" as having no affect on final figures, but he believed it could well turn out to be "another Tesco" - a reference to another council consultant's report which left Minehead's Tesco supermarket out of calculations used to justify the need for the town's Vulcan Road car park to be developed for retail purposes. He said although the revised strategy appeared to have been tidied up - the first was lambasted by both DIRECT and district councillors for being "shoddy" and "badly written" - he said the overall contents remained as "awful" as the first. Members of the council's own overview and scrutiny committee blasted the first version as being nothing more than a compilation of existing information rather than a strategy and said the report was complete waste of the £17,000 it cost to commission. Like its predecessor, the revised strategy backs up the council's previous assertions that planned developments on three of Minehead's car parks - Clanville, the railway/market and Vulcan Road - would not cause any major problems as the town has more than enough spare car parking capacity. "The council seems so sure of its development plans that the three car parks are not even included in the final recommendations," Mr Sizer said. The consultants have again recommended better signage of all council car parks across the district, amending parking charge periods, reviewing provision for disabled drivers, improving access and lighting and investigating decriminalised parking and possibly even a park and ride facility in Minehead. However, the council is promising to hold a full public consultation on the strategy and its recommendations, which the authority has conceded remain largely unaltered from the first draft. Trevor Shaw, the authority's regeneration and policy manager, said: "The report provides an independent audit of our car parks and recommends a course of action for improvement. "It is linked to a future review of on-street parking provision and consideration of the potential for decriminalised parking enforcement. "The strategy gives the council a logical starting point and structure for taking the car parking service forward for the next five to six years." Copies of the strategy, which covers the whole of the district, are available for inspection at public libraries in West Somerset, at council information points and at council offices in Minehead and Williton. The document can also be viewed online at the council's website at http://www.westsomersetonline.gov.uk">www.westsomersetonline.gov.uk. Comments on the strategy must be made in writing and be received by the council no later than Friday July 15.