RESIDENTS are up in arms about a proposal to charge for the use of a free car park.

Coggeshall Parish Council has put forward a proposal to start charging people for parking in Stoneham Street car park.

It says the option is being considered due to complaints from residents and visitors that the car park is always full during the day.

However, many residents are unhappy with the proposal and say the parish council could double the number of spaces to 140 if it used land alongside the car park.

The land, which is used as a play area, reportedly has planning approval for use as a car park but the parish council has ruled this out.

Resident Peter Farmer, 67, of Crouch End in Coggeshall, said: “There is a new batch of councillors and they have decided they want to start charging people to park there, which is not going to help encourage people to come here.

“The parish council is not disclosing any information at all.

“We have got some facts and figures but there needs to be an open debate about it.

“I even submitted a Freedom of Information request but they said it was commercially sensitive.”

In a statement online, Coggeshall Parish Council said the car park costs £4,800 in rates each year, and the objective was to establish control over the car park to prevent abuse.

It said: “We have received a lot of comments about the car park and the proposals.

“To clarify the situation, the council would like to summarise the proposals, which are to gain control of off-street car parking, re-organise and maximise the capacity of the car parking area and the gravelled extension and explore opportunities for creating additional car parking areas within Coggeshall.

“This will involve the introduction of a fair, but not onerous, charging regime.

“We are engaging with the North Essex Parking Partnership to join the Braintree off street parking order.”

Des Wilson of Knights Road, a retired civil engineer who specialised in traffic and transport issues, said: “There is a serious under-provision of parking in Coggeshall and the survey carried out did not give the full facts.”