APPALLED councillors are calling for the suspension of parking charges during Christmas bank holidays after 30 tickets were given out on New Year's Day in Northallerton.

The town council was told the tickets were given out around 9am even though there were few other cars in the High Street.

North Yorkshire County Council is responsible for parking enforcement on the town’s main street, which is restricted to 30 minutes free with charges for parking up to two hours.

Deputy mayor Cllr Claire Palmer told the council she was working on New Year’s Day and there were very few shops open.

She said: "There were also few vehicles along the High Street by 9am, but the traffic wardens came round and ticketed 30 cars, the only shop open was the bookmakers, there really were no other businesses open that I could see.

“This has received a lot of criticism in the town - people are very unhappy. I don’t see how it supports either the businesses or the drink-drive campaign run by the police. Drivers may well have come into town the night before to celebrate and left their cars in the centre to make sure they were not drinking and driving, and then they get a ticket.

“I think it is detrimental to the town and to the businesses. It puts people off. On other Bank Holidays you can see the town is busy, it is open for business - so this would not apply to all Bank Holidays only to Christmas and New Year when the town is so quiet.”

Cllr Palmer was backed unanimously by fellow town councillors who agreed to write to the county council asking for suspension of the charges over the Christmas and New Year Bank Holidays.

Enforcement is carried out by wardens employed by Scarborough Borough Council on behalf of the county council.

The latest protests come after Bedale's town council objected in January 2016 when cars were ticketed on New Year’s Day. One resident protested: “What better way to shoot yourself in the foot. Issuing tickets on New Year's Day had nothing to do with traffic management or keeping parking spaces free, because there was no traffic around the town. It was simply a money-making scheme, penalising sensible drivers who chose to walk home on New Year's Eve.”