MOTORISTS will pay more to come into York after councillors approved increased charges for local authority car parks.

Tariffs will go up 20p to £1.10p an hour for short and medium stays. Residents will pay 10p an hour less than this.

Charges will rise by at least 50p after two hours at a medium-to-long-stay car park, and all-day parking will also go up by £1 before 10am and £1.50 afterwards.

The authority says the increases are in line with those being levied by other local authorities, and will generate £598,000 in income.

The rises will come into effect on March 25, before the lucrative Easter Bank Holidays.

The proposals also sanctioned an increase in parking fines from £50 to £60 from March 1.

Councillors approving the charges at a meeting last night also agreed a final council tax increase of 6.9 per cent for York.

The authority had been due to levy a 7.8 per cent rise, but councillors approved a Tory motion to find more cash from the authority's contingency fund.

The increased parking charges come after travellers learned they must pay more to journey by bus in York.

Bus company First recently announced price hikes which it blamed partly on traffic congestion caused by the Highways Agency's Copmanthorpe roadworks.

The changes were also approved days after it emerged up to 500 council workers were getting free park and ride journeys to and from work.

A council spokesman stressed the authority has pledged to increase investment in car parks security and maintenance over the next year under a programme which had already earned the authority Secure Car Park status from the Government.

He also said there were good-value alternatives to city centre parking, such as park and ride.

Short-stay parking in the city also remained relatively cheap, the spokesman said.

But the rises were still attacked today by commuters.

Vanessa Fitzpatrick, of Bishopthorpe, said: "I don't think there is enough difference between resident and tourist charges. I think it will be too expensive when it goes up. It's not too bad at the moment."

Rebecca Anderson, of Bridlington, travels to York to work. She said: "It is ridiculous at the moment. £1 an hour is too expensive."

Gillian Rudd, of Thirsk, said: "The increase is silly and stupid. There is not enough car parking in the city anyway. They just want everyone to Park and Ride."

Council leader Rod Hills said the rises were necessary to keep council tax increases as low as possible.

"Any increases are regrettable but this was one of the ways of keeping council tax down," he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Steve Galloway also supported the increases.

He said: "Clearly this was included in the Labour and Conservative supported budget. I think we recognise that money had to be found to reduce the council tax increases."

Updated: 12:11 Friday, February 22, 2002