Leading councillors at a cash-strapped Kent authority say they have been left with “no choice” but to impose parking charge hikes.

Canterbury City Council’s (CCC) proposed fee increases will see hourly rates in some car parks jump to as much as £3.70, but politicians insist they have done their best to “mitigate those rises as much as possible”.

The authority first mooted its plans for sweeping hikes at parking hotspots across the district in October - looking to generate an extra £1 million per year.

Under the plans, car parks would be broken down into three bands, with the highest charges imposed at the most popular sites.

The number of car parks in Band One - the priciest - would increase from two to seven, with the council proposing an hourly rate of £3.70 for them all.

While this represents just a 20p hike at the existing premium sites in Canterbury, motorists in Whitstable will be forking out as much as £2.10 more an hour.

At the town’s biggest car park, Gorrell Tank, and nearby Keams Yard, the hourly rate is currently £3.10 between April and September and £1.60 the rest of the year.

But the council wants to ditch seasonal tariffs, which are seen as a tourist tax on summer visitors, leaving residents facing an all-year-round rate of £3.70.

It would mean someone paying £8 for a five-hour stay in the town today instead having to fork out £18.50.

To further hit drivers in the pocket, CCC is also proposing to end free midweek parking between 8.30am and 10am in six Whitstable car parks, and from 6pm to 9pm in Herne Bay’s biggest car park, William Street.

It has left businesses fearing the impact the fee increases could have on footfall as they continue to fight their way through the cost-of-living crisis.

Nejmi Hassan runs Makcari’s cafe and ice cream parlour across two sites on Herne Bay seafront, where hourly rates will rise by as much as £1.20.

“I’m fuming - I might as well just shut my shop,” he previously told KentOnline.

“There’s zero consideration from the council for the businesses and the people here. This has pushed me to the point of giving up.

“In the 25 years I’ve been trading in Herne Bay this is the worst piece of news I’ve ever received. For a lot of businesses here this will be the final nail in the coffin.”

Following a public consultation, the council’s overview and scrutiny committee recommended some tweaks to the scheme, which were discussed by members of its cabinet on Thursday.

“Under no circumstances did I want to put prices up in any way shape or form,” said cabinet member for transport Cllr Alex Ricketts (Lib Dem).

“That’s always going to be the first point – how can we limit what the impact will be? But we do find ourselves in a financial situation that we have to do this, and we do have to raise revenue.

“I think what we’ve tried to do and what the team have done brilliantly is try to introduce some changes where we mitigate those rises as much as possible across the district.”

The Blean representative says the reopening this April of the Sturry Road Park & Ride - mothballed by the previous Conservative administration because of underuse - will provide an alternative to pricey parking elsewhere in the city centre.

The move will be funded by £232,500 generated through the proposed changes.

Cllr Ricketts described the Park & Ride service across Canterbury as “probably among the cheapest in the country”, and explained that under a discount scheme for residents, all-day parking at any of the city’s three sites will cost “as low as £3.20 a day”.

There will also be a 10% discount on parking fees for district residents under the plans, but not in the priciest car parks in Band One.

The offer would also only apply to the remaining sites with ANPR technology - to allow for online administration - leaving just 10 of the district’s 42 car parks eligible.

The public consultation sparked a wave of public opposition and forced some amendments to be made.

Among them, the Oyster and Beach Walk car parks in Whitstable have been dropped to Band Two - at £2.70 an hour - from the originally planned Band One.

The proposal to increase the daily cap on the total cost of a day’s parking in a Band Two site from £20 to £25 has also been scrapped, along with plans to axe a 20% discount on annual parking permits for electric vehicle owners.

William Street in Herne Bay will lose its free parking from 6pm to 9pm, but complimentary stays will be offered between 9.30pm and 7.30am.

The cost of all of the amendments leaves a £40,000 shortfall on the extra revenue proposed, prompting Cllr Ricketts to stress: “Unfortunately that does mean that there’s had to be some savings made elsewhere.”

Among them, a budget of £30,000 to pay for things such as free parking at Christmas or around festivals has been cut to £15,000.

Cabinet member for finance Cllr Mike Sole (Lib Dem) said: “No one likes putting up car parking charges, but the financial situation that we find ourselves in and every other local authority finds itself in means there’s been no choice but to look at additional incomes from somewhere.

“We know they’re not popular.”

However, he lauded the planned mitigations, saying that because of the residents’ discount: “Ten of our car parks will be cheaper for residents next year than they are this year – and that’s going to put more money back in the pockets that people can go and spend in the high street if they want to.”

Seven of the car parks Cllr Sole refers to are the Canterbury sites in Band Two, which will see charges increase from £2.50 to £2.70 for out-of-towners, but fall by 7p an hour for district residents.

The three other sites referenced - all in Whitstable - will see rates fall by 60p an hour in the summer, but they will increase by 30p in the winter.

The council has also set aside £300,000 for improvements to multi-storey car parks such as the ailing Castle Street site.

Cabinet member Mel Dawkins chimed in: “We've got a job to do, we’ve got to reduce emissions, we’ve got to combat congestion, we’ve got to improve air quality and we’ve got to encourage active travel. It’s all done for a reason.”

The cabinet recommended the revised parking plans be approved by all councillors as part of the authority’s new budget at a meeting next Thursday (February 22).

If given the green light, they will be introduced in April.