Sunday parking charges coming to Edinburgh

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CITY chiefs have voted to push ahead with plans to introduce Sunday parking charges in Edinburgh for the first time ever.

Councillors voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposals at a meeting of the transport and environment committee this morning.

But they insisted the restrictions would not be brought in before 12.30pm, following a wave of opposition from religious groups.

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Rev George Whyte, clerk to the Church of Scotland’s Edinburgh presbytery, previously told the Evening News churches would close if charges were introduced in the morning.

He said: “Our congregations see a bleak future for themselves if this goes ahead. Churches will close and what they do will be lost.”

Councillor Lesley Hinds, the city’s transport leader, said: “We will never satisfy everybody but I believe we have got a proposal here that is the right way forward.”

The new restrictions - which will not be introduced until 2018 at the earliest - will see parking charges brought in between 12.30pm and 6.30pm in the city centre.