A CONTROVERSIAL plan to increase the cost of parking permits for residents and businesses in Hartlepool is to be debated.

A meeting of Hartlepool Borough Council's full council recently put the plan on hold and referred it to its resources scrutiny forum.

The plan would see the cost of a business parking permit double and then increase again a year later, while a residents parking permit would rise from £1 to £15 a year.

Now, the forum is asking residents and small businesses within the parking permit areas for their views on how the proposed increases would affect them.

It is writing to those business and residents' associations whose members are within the parking permit areas, inviting them to send representatives to give their views at the next meeting of the forum on Tuesday, December 7, at the town's civic centre at 3pm.

The proposed increases would mean that:

l The cost of a business parking permit would rise from £150 a year to £300 a year. It would then increase again to £450 a year from September.

* The cost of a resident's parking permit would rise from £1 a year to £15 a year, but residents in the central zone would be given a £14 subsidy.

Councillor Marjorie James, chairwoman of the forum, said: "Where residents and businesses are required to pay for services which are above and beyond their council tax and business rates, they have a right to expect to be consulted.

"The current system on parking permits does not allow for this. Councillors believe that this is wrong and that it must be changed."

Anyone wishing to make written comments about the increases can send them to Jonathan Wistow, Scrutiny Support Officer, Chief Executive's Department, Hartlepool Council, Civic Centre, Victoria Road, Hartlepool, TS24 8AY by Thursday, December 2.