Drivers will have to pay to park for the first time in ten Bristol suburban car parks despite more than 140 objections about the one in Westbury-on-Trym.
Bristol city councillors approved the new fees in December.
The planned new charges at Westbury Hill car park sparked massive opposition because it serves a GP surgery, two churches and many community groups, along with local shops.
The transport and connectivity policy committee voted 7-2 to introduce pay and display after Cllr Nicholas Coombes (Lib Dem, Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze) got cross-party support for an amendment to council officers’ recommendations to retain one free-hour parking from ticket machines, instead of being only available on the RingGo app.
Officers had wanted to scrap that because of misuse from motorists who take multiple tickets to flout the time limit and also write abuse on them.
The decision means drivers, after the first free hour, will be charged £1.50 for two hours, £3 for three and £4.50 for four, alongside reserved bays for health centres at £5 per permit.
These will also apply at nine other car parks including Machin Road in Henburyand Waverley Road in Shirehampton.
The charges were initially proposed by the former Labour administration in February but were deferred by a year in a deal with the Conservatives to approve the annual budget.
However, many people submitted public forum statements to the committee objecting to the plans.
Ward Cllr Caroline Gooch (Lib Dem, Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze) told the committee that parking on the street was already a “nightmare” and this would make the problems worse.
She said: “There is free parking at Cribbs nearby so you’re going to drive business away. On top of that, you want people to pay to go to the doctors or you give an hour free but if it takes longer than that, they will have to pay.”
Cllr Gooch said forcing people to use RingGo discriminated against older people.
In a separate decision, the committee voted 8-1 to withdraw free 30-minute parking in residents’ parking zones from ticket machines and make them available only from RingGo because of motorists’ abuse of the scheme.
By Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporting Service