WAR veterans in York claim new controversial car park charges will "demolish" their quality of life.

Mike Farrington, secretary of The Royal Naval Association (RNA), said many elderly members will stop turning up to their meetings when they are forced to pay and display at car parks after 6pm.

He says the introduction of permits unveiled by transport executive member Coun Ann Reid would not ease the burden as they only met at the Clarence Club once a month.

The permit, priced at £84 a year or £25 a quarter, will allow residents to park in city centre car parks between 6pm and 8.30am.

"The car is the safest and most practical way to travel to the meetings," Mr Farrington said.

"With extra council tax and increased association charges, the extra car park fees could prove to be the last straw, causing many of these organisations to lose their older members in York.

"These members did not find it difficult jumping on to the beaches at Normandy, or keeping their balance on the deck of a ship, even in a force-ten gale.

"But now, 60 years later it is much harder jumping on a bus or walking to their meetings."

The Liberal Democrats' parking changes have met with huge opposition from many sections of the community. They have already agreed to back down over measures to ban on-street parking in the city centre, which would have made churchgoers "pay to pray" at Sunday services.

Bernard Hallas, 86, the RNA's publicity officer, who served in the Second World War on board HMS Warspike and in the Spanish Civil War, branded the changes "ridiculous".

"The council is trying to bleed us dry".

He told the Evening Press: "Our pensions have not been put up and are slowly been chipped away at."

Updated: 09:45 Saturday, February 28, 2004