PLANS to increase the cost of Salisbury residents’ parking permits to “harmonise” them with the rest of the county have been questioned after it emerged that 98 per cent of all permits in Wiltshire are issued in the city.

As previously reported in the Journal, Wiltshire Council is considering squeezing £200,000 out of city centre residents by charging them £90 a year for on-street parking, and £110 for a second car.

Motorists currently pay £20 to £40 a year in Salisbury, depending on the type of permit, which means the price of some people’s permits could rocket by 450 per cent if the plans are approved.

The council describes this as “harmonising” the charges across the county because people living in other parts of Wiltshire already pay £90.

But the Journal has learned that just 74 of the 3,910 active permits in Wiltshire were issued outside of Salisbury, accounting for 2 per cent of the total.

Conservative councillors in the affected wards have questioned their own party’s proposals.

Sven Hocking said: “This isn’t harmonisation at all. I’m unsure why we should have to ‘harmonise’ the several thousand residents’ parking permits we have here with the almost insignificant number in the rest of the county.”

City council leader Matthew Dean said the move would be a mistake and he was doing everything he could to get council leaders to reconsider. He said: “Salisbury is a special case because of our medieval road structure and our lack of off-street parking. People can’t park in garages or on drives because we don’t have them in a lot of cases in the city centre.”

Atiqul Hoque said he was unhappy with the proposal and was doing whatever he could to make the charge payable in monthly instalments. Mary Douglas said money was needed to protect bus services, but said the “drastic” increase was too big. She said if parking permit costs were harmonised across the county, then car park charges should be too.

Opposition councillor John Walsh said: “Wiltshire Council has yet again hit Salisbury residents in the teeth. We are indeed the cash cow of Wiltshire. Roll on the next local elections so we can put a stop to this blatant bias.”

Resident Theresa Wood said using the term ‘harmonise’ was misleading given the numbers involved, and the council should be “thoroughly ashamed.”

She said: “It’s money-grabbing and it’s targeting people who can’t do anything about it. It’s absolutely immoral.” She added: “They think we are stupid but we can see beyond that.”

A consultation on the proposals runs until November 23. It can be found at consult.wiltshire.gov.uk