A BUSINESSMAN has donated thousands of pounds to a school to keep its car park free for the public at weekends for the third year running.

Roy Pipe, who runs R Pipe Insurance Consultants in Maldon High Street, made his first donation to Plume Academy in May 2016 following Maldon District Council’s decision to increase parking charges for its town centre car parks the previous month.

Last week, Mr Pipe renewed the contract with the academy, donating a further £5,000 to keep the car park free for another year, the same donation he made for the previous two years.

Mr Pipe said the scheme had received excellent feedback from residents.

Maldon District Council made changes to its parking charges for sites such as White Horse Lane, Butt Lane and Friary Fields in April 2016, where evening and weekend charges were introduced.

Mr Pipe stated he wanted to help residents with parking in the town and in-turn high street businesses.

The contract with Plume will run until May 2019, allowing free parking from 6.30pm on Fridays up until 6.30am on Mondays.

Mr Pipe said his company would be open to continuing the deal into the future after the year contract expires.

He said: “At the moment the contract is a year by year agreement, but as long as the public use it and the academy and us deem it worthwhile, we’ll be happy to carry on for a long as possible.”