STEVE Galloway will have expected - perhaps even relished - a conflict with traders over new parking charges. Friction has always existed between York's merchant adventurers and the city governors.

But the council leader cannot have anticipated battling nuns.

Sister Mary Walmsley's condemnation of evening parking fees is an almighty intervention.

Coun Galloway could characterise the collective cry of anguish from other businesses as an over-reaction from "the usual suspects" - although that would be a misjudgement. He might even discard the findings of our survey which found that parking charges were hitting evening takings. "Too early to judge," is the Liberal Democrat mantra. But York's Mother Superior is more difficult to dismiss.

The nuns who run the Bar Convent are not given to political rabble-rousing. Sister Mary has spoken out because she believes the parking charges are profoundly unfair to her staff and damaging to her business. And this is a business, we must remember, which has won national acclaim and brought reflected glory to York.

Sister Mary feels so strongly about the parking charges that she is willing to join a march against them organised by the Trades Union Council.

This is not the only occasion where the Church has come into conflict with the new policy. The council scrapped Sunday morning charges in some parts of the city centre after worshippers complained of having to "pay to pray".

If councillors listen to no one else - not the shopkeepers, not the restaurateurs, nor the theatre managers, nor the residents nor tourists - they should listen to Sister Mary. Coun Galloway should concede defeat and drop the parking charges: or he may find to his cost that religion and politics don't mix.

Updated: 10:46 Friday, May 21, 2004