Residents in Brighton and Hove have been hit with another rise in the cost of parking permits.

It currently costs motorists £104 a year for a parking permit, or £30 for three months.

But on May 1, the cost of parking permits in zones C, H, J, M, N, O, Q, R, T, Y and Z, will rise by £2, to £106 for 12 months and by £1, to £31, for three months.

People living in zones U and W will see permits rise from £60 to £61 for the year and £35 to £36 for six months.

About 20,000 residents in Brighton and Hove own a residents' parking permit, meaning Brighton and Hove City Council is set to rake in hundreds of thousands of pounds in total.

However, the council's annual increase is minor compared to April last year when permits rose from £80 a year to £104, and visitor permits increased from £1 to £2 a day.

The changes, which also included a rise in pay-and-display spaces and car parking in the city, was to help the council raise an extra £1.4 million a year to cover the £3.5 million shortfall created by the Government-sponsored concessionary bus pass scheme.

Steve Percy, from the People's Parking Protest group, which has previously campaigned against the hike in parking charges, said: “I do not like the idea of the council putting anything up at the moment because it is hitting people in a recession.

“But, if it's only £2 I am relieved the charges are not going up any higher. I do not agree with the car parking charges, especially the on-street visitors permits which went up from £1 to £2.

“What I would like to know is what are they using the increase for? If they could possibly avoid putting it up at the moment it would be giving something back to the motorists, especially with the cost of fuel and car tax going up.”

A council spokesman said: “This is one of the lowest annual rises in parking permit charges ever and is less than the rate of inflation.

“We appreciate the difficulties residents are going through because of the recession and we hope that this very modest increase – barely more than the price of one loaf of bread for most 12 month permits – reflects our concern.”

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