DRIVERS in the St Luke’s area of Brighton can expect parking restrictions to extend from a few hours to 11 hours a day from Saturday 1 June if proposed changes are agreed.

Currently the area – parking zone U – has a light-touch scheme.

Drivers cannot park without a permit or ticket from 10am to 11am and from 2pm to 3pm from Monday to Saturday.

It is expected to be absorbed into the wider Queen’s Park scheme – parking zone C – where parking restrictions run from 9am to 8pm every day.

The move comes after a petition by people in the area in 2016 asked for a full scheme.

After a series of consultations the final proposed changes were presented to residents last July.

Seven in ten of those who responded to Brighton and Hove City Council said that they wanted to join a full parking scheme.

A resident of Cuthbert Road who supported the change said that they regularly had to pay to park in zone C as there were no spaces in zone U.

Another Cuthbert Road resident said: “The full scheme is more cost effective. It is impossible to find space outside restricted times.

“This offers a better deal and flexibility for zone U residents.”

Comments from people living in Freshfield Road included complaints about the increased cost of permits and how the street was half full most of the day.

A report is going before the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee tomorrow (Tuesday 19 March) said that people living in Queen’s Park Rise and St Luke’s Terrace were against the proposal.

It was equally unpopular in Freshfield Street.

A resident in Queen’s Park Rise said: “The majority of parents dropping off to St Luke’s School currently do so legally – if included into (zone) C they would then be parking illegally.

“Short-term visitors such as carers and tradespeople can park legally apart from the two restricted hours but prevents all-day commuter parking.”

People living in Queen’s Park Rise and Freshfield Street will be asked which light-touch zone they want to be in – zone C or their current zone S.

The zone S area of Hanover, north of Bentham Road, is expected to remain a light-touch scheme after more than 60 per cent of the 731 people who responded to the council’s consultation said that they wanted the scheme to remain unchanged.

The Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall today. The meeting, which starts at 4pm, is open to the public.