WILTSHIRE residents can now have their say on the latest plans to increase parking charges.

The council says it needs to raise money from parking to cover the cost of rural bus services.

As previously reported by the Journal, the proposals include plans to hike charges in council car parks by an average of 12 per cent to raise an extra £708k a year.

Also on the cards are plans to raise the cost of residents' permits in Salisbury by up to 550 per cent, bringing them in line with the rest of the county and raising around £200k a year.

Salisbury already has the most expensive public car parks in Wiltshire.

The changes will make them more expensive than those in its competitor towns including Bath, Winchester, Southampton and Bournemouth.

Seven options are on the table, worth a total of £1.4m a year.

The consultation asks people to chose between each proposal and the alternative of cutting rural buses.

Currently the council charges for parking on Sundays only in Salisbury. Extending this across the county would raise an extra £78k a year.

Charging in all free car parks would generate £95k, while cancelling free parking initiatives in November and December would bring in another £5k.

Season ticket prices are discounted by around 85 per cent. Cutting the discount to 50 per cent would earn the council £280k a year.

And slashing the grace period before a parking ticket is issued from 15 to 10 minutes - the legal minimum - would raise £5k a year.

The consultation runs until midnight on November 23 and can be found here.

Councillor in charge of transport, Bridget Wayman, ruled out evening parking charges as they would harm the nighttime economy.

Cllr Wayman also rejected charging disabled blue-badge holders.

She said: “We don’t want to increase parking charges, however the cost of operating car parks is rising as is the cost of public transport, and without income generated from car parks we could lose many vital bus services."

Councillor Ian Thorn, opposition leader, said: "Lib Dems in Wiltshire are well aware that any increase in car parking charges will have a significant impact on local business and traders.

"It’s disappointing that the most likely option is a twelve percent increase at a time when family budgets are tight and local businesses are having to cope with high rents and ever increasing business rates."