![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/council-traps-church-goers-with-a-700-parking-fee-increase-on-sundays/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/newspress-collage-23355743-1691163388034.jpg&description=PARKED OFF Published : 16:40, 4 Aug 2023 Updated : 16:40, 4 Aug 2023 A COUNCIL has trapped church-goers with a 700% parking fee increase to £17 on Sundays in a "money-grabbing scheme". The new rates in Winchester, Hampshire , 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. 5 Middle Brook car park, Winchester Credit: Solent 5 Colebrook Street car park, Winchester Credit: Solent Worshippers at Winchester Cathedral said the hike in tariffs at nearby car parks has been so steep their "only hope is God". Business owners have also protested and furious residents of the affluent Hampshire city have set up an online petition demanding the council reverse its decision. However, the Liberal Democrat councillor responsible has dismissed calls to scrap the charges, saying "air quality doesn't care what day of the week it is". Fees on a Sunday for more than four hours have increased in some car parks from £2.10 to £17 - an increase of 710 per cent. The move was introduced by the council in a bid to reduce pollution by "helping to deliver the carbon neutrality plan", which commits the local authority to delivering its services in a carbon neutral way by 2024. But it has provoked wrath from cathedral goers as one of the car parks affected is just a few hundred yards from the seat of the historic diocese. Olive Bramley, who was born in Winchester and been attending services at the Cathedral all her life, said she was "incensed" at the council's decision. "I go to the eight o'clock morning community service every Sunday morning," the 74-year-old said. Mrs Bramley, from nearby Micheldever, travels eight miles every weekend because her local church doesn't hold a Sunday service. Arriving before the 8am start, Mrs Bramley pays the £3.30 flat overnight charge, as well as £1.80 as the new day rates begin as her mass starts. "I'll have to pay £5.10 for parking and then £5 for the c){kind=link}
A COUNCIL has trapped church-goers with a 700% parking fee increase to £17 on Sundays in a “money-grabbing scheme”.
The new rates in Winchester, Hampshire, 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.
Worshippers at Winchester Cathedral said the hike in tariffs at nearby car parks has been so steep their “only hope is God”.
Business owners have also protested and furious residents of the affluent Hampshire city have set up an online petition demanding the council reverse its decision.
However, the Liberal Democrat councillor responsible has dismissed calls to scrap the charges, saying “air quality doesn’t care what day of the week it is”.