Cash-strapped council bosses want to impose parking charges on dozens more Norfolk streets to raise money to help plug a budget gap.

Changes - including more pay and display bays and permit zones - are to be rolled out in a string of towns and villages, as well as Norwich neighbourhoods.

Norfolk County Council estimates the move could raise £600,000 between 2024 and 2028 and help tackle the £46.2m funding gap County Hall faces.

But the proposal - part of a £25m package of savings the Conservative council is considering to help balance its books - comes at a time when prime minister Rishi Sunak has said he wants to stop what he described as the "relentless attack on motorists".

Eastern Daily Press: Prime minister Rishi SunakPrime minister Rishi Sunak (Image: (Danny Lawson/PA))

Council leaders insist they are only bringing in the charges in areas where communities are keen for parking restrictions.

They are still working on the full list, but among the locations where new measures are due to be introduced are coastal areas, such as Brancaster, Wells-next-the-Sea and Old Hunstanton, where communities say visitors often clog their streets with cars.

Eastern Daily Press: Parking charges could be introduced in more Norfolk streetsParking charges could be introduced in more Norfolk streets (Image: Newsquest)

 

New restrictions have already been introduced in Cringleford, while County Hall officers are also identifying possible locations for more resident permit zones in Norwich and Diss, in areas suffering from parking issues.

Eastern Daily Press: Andrew Jamieson, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for financeAndrew Jamieson, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for finance (Image: Norfolk County Council)

Andrew Jamieson, Norfolk County Council's cabinet member for finance, this week warned all services the council is not required by law to provide could be at risk because of the authority's need to make savings.

He said more parking restrictions needed to be considered as a way to generate more revenue in light of the funding gap.

But he stressed the council was only looking to bring them in at places where communities had asked for them.

He said: "The proposal around revenue from parking restrictions refers to those parishes which have requested it.

"We are working with those communities and the figure is an estimate of what we think that could generate."

Eastern Daily Press: People could have to pay to park in more Norfolk streetsPeople could have to pay to park in more Norfolk streets (Image: Keiron Tovell)

Norfolk Parking Partnership - a collaboration between councils - generated more than £3m in 2022/23 from on-street parking charges, residents' permits and penalty notices.

it comes despite Mr Sunak saying he was "slamming the brakes on the war on motorists" after he announced a slew of pro-driving policies ahead of the Tory conference this week.