COUNCILLORS in Cleveland have been warned against inflaming resentment over staff parking.

When a member of a Redcar and Cleveland scrutiny committee questioned whether parking passes could be used while workers were on holiday, a colleague said such "niggling" could aggravate staff.

Commenting on plans to make staff pay for parking, Coun Steve Kay said he would hate to work for the authority. "Staff must be sick to death of us trying to wring every last penny out of them," he said.

A union official has branded the scheme, which would save the council £47,000 a year, as shoddy. Unison branch secretary John McCormack also claims the move was a breach of implied conditions and insisted the situation should stay the same.

The effectiveness scrutiny committee was considering a report on reimbursement of parking charges to essential and casual car users. The council wants to end a system which sees car users at Redcar, and shortly at Guisborough, get work parking charges refunded.

Redcar staff get an annual parking pass valid in all long-stay parks, while casual users receive £2 a day for parking in Redcar while on business. Other workers get no reimbursement at all and pay £2 a day parking.

The report indicated that the practice stemmed from an arrangement made with officers of the former Cleveland County Council, but never sanctioned by councillors.

It is proposed to reimburse staff only when they park away from their workplace and to offer everyone an annual season ticket, with the £411 cost taken from salary. This would work out at £34 a month.

But Conservative group leader Coun Vera Moody asked: "Are the annual passes for use during holidays, because there are fears it could be seen as a tax benefit."

Assistant chief executive Malcolm Oyston was not sure people could be stopped from using the passes at other times. "But they will be designated for Monday to Friday and not weekends," he said.

Lead councillor for human resources, Coun John Simms, said: "The annual ticket is a compromise and an issue we haven't won yet. If we want to inflame the situation, we can talk about policing this, checking if people use the passes while on holiday."

Coun Kay said: "Staff morale is already at an all-time low. To niggle about using the passes during holidays is ridiculous and it would cost a fortune to enforce. It will only aggravate people.

The committee agreed to the recommendations, which the council executive will consider on Tuesday