Parking hike row of biblical proportions
Cathedral worshippers’ fury as LibDem council raises Sunday rates 700 per cent
AN ALMIGHTY row has broken out in a historic cathedral city over a sevenfold increase in Sunday parking charges.
Worshippers have accused Winchester Council of behaving like the ‘Soviet politburo’ on the Lord’s day of rest and say their ‘only hope is God’.
An online petition is demanding the authority reverse the move, which is part of a carbon
‘It seems God is my last hope’
neutral strategy. But the ruling Liberal Democrats have dismissed calls to scrap the scheme, saying ‘air quality doesn’t care what day of the week it is’.
The new rates in the city centre were introduced in July, charging motorists the same on Sunday as any other day of the week as well as making them pay to park overnight for the first time.
Parking on Sunday for four hours or more now costs as much as £17, more than 700 per cent higher than the £2.10 it cost before. The move was introduced by the council in a bid to reduce pollution and ‘help to deliver the carbon neutrality plan’.
Councillors signed off on plans to introduce an overnight charge equivalent to two hours of the daily rate for parking after 7pm and before 8am in central car parks despite concerns it would deter night-time visitors.
One of the car parks affected is just a few hundred yards away from the cathedral. Olive Bramley, 74, who has attended services there all her life, said she was ‘incensed’ at the price change.
She said: ‘With the cost of living crisis that we are all facing I think this new charging scheme is grossly unfair, unreasonable and will result in less giving to the cathedral.’
‘I will definitely need to continue praying to God as, it seems, He is my last hope, there being no common sense or joined-up thinking in the council.’ Another worshipper, Ted Hart, called the council’s decision ‘insane’, adding: ‘They are starting to resemble the old Soviet politburo where they implement any scheme they wish and appear accountable to nobody.’
Councillor Kelsie Learney said: ‘In the end, air quality doesn’t care what day of the week it is or what time of day it is.
‘We continue to have easily available free parking for people working in or visiting the city in the evening and on Sundays.’