A Wishaw woman has blasted North Lanarkshire Council’s decision to charge town centre residents to park their cars outside their own homes.
Lynne McKay has been left angered by the local authority’s introduction of parking permits for residents.
Under the council’s plans, a family with four cars will be expected to pay £450 to park on town-centre streets.
Lynne, of Stewarton Street, said: “Residents are being penalised for living in the town centre.
“I just can’t understand why North Lanarkshire Council would bring in a scheme like this.
“To me it’s just a money-making exercise and I’m sure I am not the only one person who thinks like this.
“There’s no guarantee residents would even get parked outside their house.
“I have one car so they are charging me £60 for a service they cannot guarantee. This isn’t central London, it’s the centre of Wishaw.”
Under the plans, residents will be charged £60 for a parking permit for one car.
For families with two cars it is an extra £90, those with three vehicles will have to splash out an additional £120 while those with four cars will fork out an extra £180.
This means a family with four cars will pay £450 to park on town-centre streets.
Stewarton Street is one of several that will be affected by the changes. Others include Main Street, Belhaven Terrace, Roberts Street, Glasgow Road and Hill Street.
Station Road in Shotts will also be affected as will several streets in Motherwell.
Lynne, 40, lived in Swansea for three years when a similar scheme was introduced.
She continued: “When I lived there each home got two free parking permits.
“Swansea also had a team of wardens patrolling the streets and vans going around. It was almost impossible for anyone to park where they shouldn’t.
“I can understand the reasons behind it, but do they have the bodies to enforce it here? There won’t be any bays designated for residents so how are they going to make this work?
“It’s clear that the council haven’t thought this through.”
A council spokesperson said: “The residents permit scheme has been introduced to allow people to park for longer that the time indicated for each bay. Whereas parking bays currently limit how long you can park in the bay before receiving a fine.
“The charges will be on an annual basis and will simply cover our costs.
“The sliding scale has been introduced in an effort to spread the availability across many households recognising that there are far fewer parking spaces available than there are residents who live in the area.
“There are no plans to introduce a residents parking scheme involving designated areas for residents only.
“We continue to monitor the number of parking attendants we have and how effective they are in patrolling our town centres.
“There are no plans to increase their numbers but we will take a further view on this after the scheme has been implemented.”
