WEST Somerset Council has terminated a five-year agreement after only two years by taking back control of three Dulverton car parks.

The car park deal with Dulverton Town Council was signed in 2014 and the district is paying it £2,500 for a “negotiated exit of agreement”.

But Cllr Margaret Rawle, chairman of Dulverton’s car park committee, said this week that scrapping the agreement from April this year might have resulted in legal action.

However, the town council decided not to fight the battle on financial grounds.

She said the town council had rented the car parks from the district authority since 1994 and run them with great success.

“Given that West Somerset council has decided to terminate the agreement before it expires, Dulverton town council will give particularly careful consideration before entering into a partnership or agreement with it in the future,” added Cllr Rawle.

She told the Free Press: “Of course we are not happy with the situation, but we have had no choice.”

Already one result of the change had been that two car park part-time supervisors had lost their jobs.

“The scheme has worked so well over the years and we have hung on for dear life to provide good economical parking and now it’s all been taken away,” she said.

Cllr Rawle said Dulverton council was relinquishing management of the town’s three car parks “with a heavy heart”.