ANGER has been voiced at a hike in charges at Bradford Council-run car parks.

It's claimed the increase will hit residents, visitors to the area and businesses.

At the Museum car park in Haworth, the fee is now £1.50 an hour – which applies every day between 8am-10pm.

"This means that for anyone wishing to park for the day the charge has risen from £5 to £21 – a 320 per cent increase!" says Worth Valley councillor Rebecca Poulsen, leader of the Conservative group on the council.

"To park there for three days will now cost £63 rather than £15.

"We want visitors to come and stay and support the local economy.

"But a number of car parks have seen charges increased by a huge amount, which is going to affect local businesses and the economy.

"It feels like places such as Haworth are being targeted."

Cllr Poulsen adds that the council also intended to introduce charges for blue badge holders at some car parks, which she had opposed, but that proposal had subsequently been dropped and the relevant part of the signage covered up.

Concerns have been expressed about a rise in charges at other sites too, including Scott Street car park in Keighley, where fees are now on a scale from £1 for up to an hour to £4 for over three hours, Mondays to Saturdays.

Keighley MP Robbie Moore says: "Increasing parking charges takes more hard-earned cash out of the pockets of local people and businesses and in my view will only drive visitors to park on residential streets, causing significant disruption.

"The fact that the council thought it could simply introduce charges for blue badge holders without properly consulting the public is shocking and I’d like to thank Councillor Poulsen for her efforts in forcing Bradford Council to reverse this decision. This is what proper local representation should look like.

"I will be making my opposition to these disastrous new measures clear with council leader Susan Hinchcliffe, and I urge Keighley's Labour councillors who voted back in March to increase parking charges to reverse their position and use their voices to oppose these measures. It is high time our local representatives stood up for the communities they were elected to represent."

A Bradford Council spokesperson says: "The Museum car park in Haworth is the busiest in the village and one of the most popular across the district, and tariffs have been set at £1.50 an hour to reflect that and encourage more people to park on a regular basis throughout the day.

"There is no overnight charge there, but to park for 24 hours would cost more than at our other Haworth car parks, where the price remains at £1 per hour as well as a single all-day charge. There is some on-street free parking available nearby.

"The legal order did include blue badge holders being charged in high-demand car parks where there were also sufficient accessible off-street parking alternatives nearby. However, we have reviewed the situation around blue badge holders’ parking charges and removed fees so the situation remains as it was previously.

"Parking charges are an essential means for us to manage parking resources across the district. They support local businesses by ensuring turnover of spaces and provide accessibility for residents and visitors, as well as promoting road safety and reducing congestion.

"In the current financial climate we’ve had to make a number of tough choices to generate revenue in a sustainable and manageable manner. Revenue from parking charges goes towards maintaining and improving infrastructure, enforcing regulations and investing in sustainable transport initiatives."