THE introduction of parking charges will harshly penalise local people who at present leave their vehicles overnight on council-owned car parks, says former county and district councillor Alan Preest.

Mr Preest is highlighting the case of a Lydney family who live in Queen Street, a narrow residential road where parking is recognised as a problem.

With no off-road parking available, many of the residents park their vehicles overnight in the nearby Newerne Street car park.

"It is their only option. The alternative is to park on the roads and outside other houses," says Mr Preest.

He is angry at the Forest of Dean District Council's response – that the vehicle owner should pay £50 for a permit which would allow him to use the council-owned car park overnight.

Mr Preest says the charge shows the council is out of touch.

"Not only are local people being penalised if they need a car park when they travel to work or to shop, they are now being penalised for where they live. It shows complete arrogance and disregard for those people they are supposed to represent," he said.

The council has written to the householder telling him that the decision to introduce parking charges had not been taken lightly and that the authority was aware some Forest of Dean residents might feel inconvenienced by the imposition of charges.

The council says: "As you may be aware we will be offering a number of permits covering differing periods of time which may be suitable for your parking requirements in our off-street car parks in Lydney. The residents permit allows users to park from 5pm until 9am the following day for an annual cost of £50. The pay and display tariff is flexible and will allow paid parking time to be carried forward to the next day enabling vehicles to remain overnight and into the next pay period."

The letter continues: "We will be regularly monitoring the on-street parking patterns in all Forest towns with Gloucestershire County Council to ensure that inconvenience to nearby residential areas is minimised. As part of this work we will ensure the problems highlighted in Queen Street are passed on to the County to observe."

Mr Preest described the permit scheme as deeply flawed and unfair on residents who had no other options.

"As far I can see there are no other options for Queen Street residents. It seems so unfair. I'm very disappointed that councillors appear to be blindly supporting a scheme that will create very little or no cash for the council."

•A spokesperson told the Review on Monday that whether or not parking charges should be introduced for staff using the car park at the council's Coleford HQ was still under review.