GETTING a coffee in East Perth’s town centre just got $3.50 cheaper, with the roll-out of the council’s one-hour free parking trial this week.

The Royal Street parking machines have been covered between Trafalgar Road and Fielder Street.

• City of Perth commissioners Gaye McMath, Eric Lumsden and Andrew Hammond catching up with local business owners from East Perth’s IGA, Kinky Lizard and Pharmacy 777, hopeful the scrapped hourly parking fee will entice more customers to visit.

For the first two weeks parking inspectors will dole out one-off cautions for people overstaying the hour, but after that the fines return to prevent non-shoppers hogging a bay all day.

The next precincts in the trial are West Perth and south of East Perth.