STREETS off York's Bishopthorpe Road are to be given a residents' priority parking scheme, despite opposition from some householders.

City of York Council will go ahead with a 24-hour 'Respark' policy in Aldreth Grove, Cameron Grove, St Clements Grove, Norfolk Street and Bishopthorpe Road after transport executive member Ian Gillies overturned objections.

Officers told a decision session there had been a consultation with all residents after a petition was received from local people.

Sixty-seven out of 100 ballot papers were returned, with 43 supporting the introduction of a Respark scheme and 24 against.

The result of the ballot was marginal for St Clements Grove and a total of 15 objections were received, including seven from Norfolk Street.

"From past experience if one street is left unrestricted, in the middle of a zone, residents generally tolerate the increase of parking within that street for a short time before seeking to become part of a residents parking zone," said traffic technician Annemarie Howarth.

"This is normally due to the increase of parking taking place, being the only unrestricted street in an area.

"Rather than wait until a scheme was in place and then have to go through the whole process again it was decided to include St. Clements Grove and Norfolk Street in the formal advertisement, at which point any formal objections to the proposal could be considered."

She said the main area of objection was having to pay to park in the street but the council felt the provision and enforcement should come from those getting the service and not fall on council tax payers generally.

Martin Hoey, of St Clements Grove, spoke out at the meeting against the scheme, saying it was easy to park up and shops in Bishopthorpe Road would suffer if Respark was introduced.

He suggested a different form of parking restrictions should be introduced to ensure residents could park up when they returned from work.