Parking in York city centre on an evening is about to become a whole lot cheaper - following the success of the Evening Press's Stop The Highway Robbery campaign.

But just how much cheaper depends on whether or not you live inside City of York Council's boundary. Or to be more accurate, whether or not you can prove that you live within the council's territory.

For the last few months, there has been an hourly charge which could land motorists with a bill of up to £5 for an evening's parking. From next Monday, if you can show you are a York resident, it will cost you just £1 to park at any time between 6pm and midnight. If you can't, it will cost you £2.

During the day, residents can obtain a smaller discount of 30 pence per hour in car parks. For example, a resident parking in Castle car park will pay £3.90, compared with £4.80 for non-residents.

To prove you are a resident, you need to put a Minster badge in your windscreen.

To get one of these, the council says you need to send in a stamped addressed envelope, along with a photocopy of your vehicle registration document, to: City Parking Office, 9 St Leonards Place, York. People can also call in during office hours in person, with the same documentation.

A spokesman said it was very important to send a photocopy, and not the original document, as they would not be returned. "The copy must show that the vehicle is registered to the applicant and that the applicant lives at an address within the City of York," he said. "No copy - no permit, and clearly we will not be writing to the applicant to tell them if they have failed to send in a photocopy.

"Applicants should allow 14 days for processing although we aim to respond within not more than three working days. All copies will be destroyed after we have verified the applicants' address."

He said that at the moment about 18,500 people had Minster badges. The badge scheme was launched in 1985 and many were more than five years old. "The holders could well have moved or have given up driving."

He said the authority had stocks and staff to cope with demand for up to 10,000 more badges, but believed that between 2,000 and 3,000 would be applied for.

Updated: 11:25 Thursday, October 28, 2004