PEOPLE wanting to park in the city centre have been thumped with a huge increase in parking charges in the evenings and Sundays.

One rate is soaring by 700 per cent in a nasty blow to people already struggling with the cost of living crisis. Free overnight stays will end.

Our front page news story reports that this will be felt by many different groups including church congregations and people involved in the night-time economy.

The Liberal Democrat-controlled council says it is a way of managing traffic, with senior councillor Kelsie Learning saying it is about "encouraging people to stay on the edge", meaning parking away from the city centre or using park and ride.

The Chronicle accepts that for the last 30 years political administrations of all colours have realised that traffic must be controlled. The days of building more and more car parks and altering the townscape to accommodate the motor car and lorry are thankfully well into the past.

But the danger here is that these increases will land an overly heavy impact on many people and businesses. It is all very well hoping to encourage park and ride but it does not run on Sundays or late in the evening. The council will argue that Winchester is among the last of authorities to charge on Sundays or in the evenings. That may be so but people will drive elsewhere, even if they still have to pay.

Of course nothing will really change until public transport is sorted out. There needs to be serious investment in buses and a reversal of decades of cuts.