THE recession should be taken into account when deciding whether to increase parking charges in the city a top councillor has warned.

That was the opinion of Coun Ian Gillies at a meeting of City of York Council’s city strategy and advisory panel tonight.

Across the board increases which would see parking increased in car parks as well as on-street parking and the ResPark schemes have been proposed which would help the city’s transport authority to balance its books.

It is projected that the increases would generate an extra £193,000 of revenue, even taking into account that there will be some resistance from people who may, initially, not park for as long as they would have.

But Coun Gillies, chairman of the advisory panel, warned of the risks of imposing hikes in parking costs at a time when shops, businesses and individuals are feeling the financial strain.

Coun Gillies said: “When it comes to car parking in the city, in the times in which we live we should be very wary of imposing increases. Let me just say that we need to take account of the economic time that we are in.”

But no other councillors on the advisory panel commented on the proposals. They will be decided upon by the full council on February 26 when the entire budget is agreed upon.

If passed the cost of householders’ ResPark permits will go up from £90 to £93 with larger increases for households with multiple cars. On and off-street parking would increase for local residents for the first time in five years; cars displaying Minster badges will be charged an extra 10p per hour for the first hour but there would be higher charges for longer stays. For example those parking for three to four hours face a hike from £4.30 to £4.70.

Visitors to York will, if the proposals are passed, pay around 20p per hour more on average.