YORK MP Hugh Bayley today urged councillors to cut York's ResPark charges - and called on the Government to ban future hikes in fees.

The MP branded York's residential parking charges, which were doubled from £42 to £84 in the spring, as a "second council tax" on inner city residents, effectively subsidising people in the suburbs.

He claimed that the majority ruling group, which represented outer suburbs without such charges, were taxing residents in inner city areas represented by other parties.

Mr Bayley spoke out after conducting a survey of 800 households in ResPark areas, and receiving more than 200 replies.

He said an overwhelming majority wanted charges only to cover the costs of running the scheme, with many saying they had agreed to a ResPark scheme in their area on the basis it would be "not for profit."

He said the survey also picked up particular concerns about the cost of tickets for visitors, which had risen from 40 pence to £1 per visit - a 150 per cent rise.

He claimed that City of York Council, which recently agreed to slash evening parking charges, should "complete its U-turn" by reducing ResPark fees as well.

The Labour MP said he planned to raise the issue in Parliament, and had written to Transport Minister David Jamieson to argue for a change in the law to prevent councils raising more through such charges than they spend on introducing and running such schemes.

He said in his letter that he had suggested this to a Commons standing committee in February, and received support from both Labour and Tory MPs, but had not tabled a formal amendment. Two months later the council had doubled the costs.

"I should be grateful if you would consider the case for legislating, when the opportunity arises, to cover only the cost of introducing and running these schemes."

Coun Ann Reid, the council's executive member for transport, said today she had not received any communication from Mr Bayley, and she would be interested in seeing more details of his survey, which she said "only 200 people bothered to reply to".

She said: "I fail to understand how this small survey can lead him to claim that 85 per cent of residents want the charges cut.

"Mr Bayley would help the residents of York more if he pledged his support for the "Fair Grant for York" campaign rather than trying to change the law for a tiny minority of the population.

"Legislation already exists to ensure that any profit made from parking charges is ploughed back into transport initiatives that benefit the city as a whole."

Updated: 10:25 Wednesday, October 20, 2004