THREE more organisations are abandoning York City centre for their meetings in the wake of evening parking charges.

Ornithologists, the Inner Wheel Club and even the Ramblers are the latest groups to join the exodus to venues outside the centre where parking is ample and free.

The three organisations have all traditionally hired rooms at the Friends Meeting House in Friargate for regular meetings, said Meeting House warden Rosemary Stubbs.

Their departure, along with that of the York City Trefoil Guild, reported in the Evening Press earlier this week, will cost the Friends about £1,500 in rental income.

She said that would result in the Friends having less money to give away to charities.

Mrs Stubbs said all four organisations had indicated that the extra cost to members posed by evening parking charges had been a key factor in their decisions to go elsewhere.

She said the Friends were hoping that other organisations still using the Meeting House would stay there.

Meanwhile, members of the Friends were themselves still deeply unhappy about having to "pay to pray" on a Sunday morning. She said they used to be able to park for free in Castlegate up until noon, but yellow lines were painted in the spring which had never been removed, as they had near some other churches in the city centre.

Friends now had to pay £2.60 to park in the nearby Castle Car Park. "It has not affected the numbers attending Meeting, but people have continued to feel disgruntled about it," she said.

She said that the clerk to the Meeting, Ann Holt, had written to council leader Steve Galloway to express her concerns about the impact of charges.

Coun Ann Reid, the council's executive member for planning and transport, said a review of parking charges was on target to report to the authority on September 28.

"We are looking at evening charges, on street restrictions and extending the Frequent User pass," she said, adding: "There have been Sunday car parking charges for many years, with the parking on Castlegate only offering limited parking to churchgoers."

Updated: 09:42 Saturday, September 11, 2004