More than 50 people gathered outside council offices in protest at plans to double daily parking charges in some residential areas in Medway and scrap annual visitor permits.

Medway Council has announced it will not issue the yearly permits for Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) from this Sunday.

These will be replaced with daily visitor vouchers costing £2 each, which previously cost £1.

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Critics suggest ‘visitors’ – which includes households with more than one vehicle – could spend up to £730 a year to park on the street every day.

Resident parking permits are unaffected, although the cost will increase from £28 to £30.

The demonstration outside Medway Council’s offices yesterday afternoon was organised by the Medway Labour group.

It says the changes could “negatively affect the most vulnerable in our communities”.

Medway Council has defended the decision, insisting the annual visitor permit are “open to abuse” and sold on by local residents.

More than 570 people have signed an e-petition on the council’s website.

Although 3,660 have signed a separate online petition, this will not be accepted by the authority as it did not appear on its own website.

Among the protestors was Tony Crowcroft from Gillingham, who described himself as “apolitical” and said the “cash cow” changes would affect the poorest people in the Towns.

He said: “Within Medway, I know quite a lot of the elderly population deeply involved with one of the churches, and lots of them have meetings in their houses.

“Now they’re going to have pay £2 per car to park for a couple of hours for a meeting in the evening.

“I’ve spoken to some people who have carers come in, they have neighbours who come – people who don’t even have cars have to buy these tickets now for relatives to visit.

“Remember, these are the people who live in the low housing stock in Medway. They are average people – these are not people with big houses or those with drives.”

Today, Medway Labour has sent a letter to Cllr Phil Filmer (Con), portfolio holder for front line services, calling for the decision to be reversed and help “make parking costs… affordable”.

Cllr Andy Stamp (Lab), group spokesperson for regeneration and communities, added: “We’ve decided to stage this demonstration for the most part because so many residents have come to us with their concerns.

“They want to send a strong message to the Tories that their plans are unacceptable, as well as the time frame they have given for people to oppose them.

“This decision is going to be a huge financial blow for those living in CPZs. The price of daily visitor tickets has gone up 100%, and visitors permits are being removed entirely, which could mean people spend up to £730 a year to park on the street every day.”

Medway Council deputy chief executive Richard Hicks defended the decision.

He said: “A number of residents living in CPZs have raised concerns about being unable to park near their homes.

“We have listened to this feedback and it has been agreed that, although new annual visitor parking permits will no longer be available from April 1, existing permits are still valid until they expire and residents will be able to buy daily permits for visitors.

“We’ve increased the number of visitor vouchers residents will be able to buy each month from 20 to 50. We want to ensure residents have the opportunity to park as close to their homes as possible.”