A PUB licensee says motorists travelling to York Races are trying to "blag" parking permits from residents in order to leave their car without paying.

But with a race day coming up tomorrow, and another meeting due next month, council chiefs have warned that permit holders who misuse their parking privileges could end up losing them.

Barry Stickney, of the Phoenix Inn, in George Street, York, says that he and other residents were inundated during last week's races with eager punters trying to buy a guest parking ticket to cover the day of their visit.

The streets around the pub, including Hope Street and Margaret Street, operate on strict permit-only schemes, designed to limit parking to local residents only. But while Barry says he did not mind loaning out one of his guest passes to a punter, he subsequently found out that dozens of other visitors had also got hold of permits, leaving many residents frozen out of their parking spaces.

"I was approached several times during the race days, and I decided to give one out," he added.

"But then everyone started saying that loads of parking places were full.

"We reckon someone has been selling permits off wholesale, and I don't want to give any more out."

Mr Stickney alerted the council's traffic wardens to the problem, who promptly came out to size up the situation.

"The worst thing was, one of the permits we saw had my name on it, and it wasn't the one I had given out," he said.

"I was puzzled - I don't know how that had happened."

A City of York Council spokeswoman said parking schemes, where householders could buy permits and additional guest passes for visitors, were set up where residents requested them, so the authority expected them to be partly self-policing.

Even so, they always had more wardens out on race days, and also paid more attention to areas where problems had been reported, she said.

The spokeswoman said that it was "anti-social" to give away or sell passes, because it led to the sort of situation Mr Stickney had described.

And she warned: "If we have proof that visitors' permits have been sold, then we will take the permit away from the resident who sells them."

Updated: 11:26 Tuesday, September 04, 2001