Furious residents are calling for a U-turn on parking permit charges for areas close to East Kilbride town centre.
An ‘admin’ charge of £10 per parking permit was passed in this year’s budget with all parties bar Labour supporting it.
Now Labour councillors Gerry Convery and group leader Joe Fagan are backing a petition against the charge.
Throughout South Lanarkshire there are Residents Parking Zones to dissuade drivers using the town centre to park in nearby residential streets.
Until now permits were supplied every two years free of charge - with a campaign fronted by the News previously staving off charges.
But residents say it’s a scandal they will now be charged to park outside their own house.
Carol Ramsay, who lives in Lairhills in The Murray, and started the petition has blasted the move.
“It’s an absolute nonsense,” she said.
“The Council are issuing a levy to park at your own home.
“All I want to do is park outside the front of my house like everyone else in the town, so why should I be any different?
“This is a direct result of the town centre car parks and various methods of car park charges being sold off.
“The council want us to pay for the administration of a scheme they have had to create as a result of this.
“And we all know it will increase year on year. In Glasgow permits are now £265. In North Lanarkshire they are £60.
“There’s plans afoot to increase the size of the zones too, once they see that money coming in it is a certainty. By then it will be to late to backtrack.”
Councillor Gerry Convery has also opposed the decision.
His ward is the worst affected with The Murray and Westwood seeing nearly 3500 permits issued.
He said: “I am totally against this charge - the amount is inconsequential.
“The same things was proposed last year but we managed to stop it. It’s totally wrong.
“The real bugbear is why are the council charging people to park in zones they created which have been there for years? The cost of administration should have been built in from the start. This is nothing short of another tax on people.
“And the two other councillors in the East Kilbride Central South Ward voted for it – despite Councillor Anderson previously being one of the biggest opponents to permit charges.”
He added that Standing Orders rules mean Labour cannot challenge the decision to charge for parking permits for six months.
But once that period has passed Labour intend to put a motion to the Council to over-turn their decision and to drop charges completely “in line with what constituents want”.
Other areas affected include Avondale, Whitemoss, Parkhall, the Village and Kirktonholme Crescent.
Councillor Joe Fagan said: “This charge is going to cause the council and the community a great deal of inconvenience without any real upside for anyone.
“My concern is that, as budgets get tighter, the charge will just go up and so we need to take a stand against it now.
“The permit zones are not really localized, they take in huge chunks of the town.
“In places like West Mains, where the bus service has been reduced and was very nearly taken away, hundreds of households will now be charged for parking outside their own home. It doesn’t seem right.”
