Parking is an issue referred to again and again by shoppers and traders trying to help our town centres and its hitches often fill pages of the Guardian.

As part of our series on the problems and triumphs of our high streets, we have looked at some of the parking issues facing shopkeepers.

The 2011 review of issues facing town centres by business guru Mary Portas focuses on how to make high street compete with out-of-town shopping centres with abundant free spaces.

Portas pointed to places such as Chester, which has free parking after 3pm and Swindon, which has seen charges fall in its multi-storey car parks.

Kevin Taylor owns Taylor’s card shop in The Broadway, Loughton, which has the 99-space Burton Road pay and display council car park nearby, as well as 50 spaces off-street at its Vere Road car park.

There are also 60 spaces along The Broadway, which are limited to an hour’s parking during the day, and 26 just off the street at Sainsbury’s in Torrington Drive, also limited to an hour.

My Taylor said a scheme where parking was free for a few hours a day could work there.

He added: “Maybe between noon and 3pm it could be free.

“It would give shoppers some sort of incentive. They might think ‘I’ll nip up to Debden – I’m not going to have any trouble parking up there’. It could be advertised.

“Before the parking restrictions, people used to like to be able to pull up and pop into the shops without worrying, but they don’t have that freedom anymore.”

The leader of the district council, Chris Whitbread, said the free Saturday parking already provided in several of its car parks could be better advertised.

He added: “The Broadway already has free Saturday parking in one of its car parks and I think what we should do is re-publicise that.

“When most people are available for shopping is a Saturday or Sunday.”

He added that the council had frozen parking charges for the past three years to try and encourage town centre trade.

At the other end of town in parts of the High Road, shopkeepers are facing the opposite problem of free-for-all parking outside their businesses, meaning workers park there all day, blocking potential customers.

There are about 30 parking spaces along the High Road and Church Road between the junctions with Salcombe Park to King’s Green, some of which are pay and display with an hour’s limit, while others have no restrictions.

Marion Park, who works in Verve clothes shop at the north end of the High Road, said: “Here, the parking is not metered and other shopkeepers take up all the space for customers.”

She said clearer signposts were needed to off-street parking in the town, which includes 29 spaces in High Beech Road, 188 at Traps Hill, 270 at Sainsbury’s in Old Station Road, 41 in The Drive, 21 in Smarts Lane, 140 at Morrison’s in The Drive and 43 at Marks and Spencer in the High Road.

“It’s not very well signposted,” she added. “I had a lady in the other day who said she couldn’t park and when I asked if she’d gone to the library, she said she didn’t know there was parking there.”

The council’s highways portfolio holder, Gary Waller, said: “Certainly something making sure people know where spaces are is useful.”

He said he planned to look this year at varying parking charges across the district.

He added: “Somewhere like North Weald or Ongar has a different situation from Epping.

“We have to look at the possibility of having variable tariffs between the different towns, because they’re not all the same.”

He said adding strictly-controlled short stay parking across the district to ensure shoppers’ spaces were not taken up all day was another possibility.

When more commuters started leaving their cars in shoppers’ spaces in Epping town centre, earlier this year, the council briefly discussed introducing temporary double-decker parking.

But Cllr Whitbread said finding space for extra parking was difficult.

“Many of our colleagues have made suggestions, but land is such a rare commodity,” he added.

“It would be interesting to see if Transport for London could do anything in their Epping car park, to take the slack and bring relief to the town centre.”