DRIVERS are facing a sharp rise in the cost of using more than 50 car parks across the New Forest.

The price of buying an annual parking permit or purchasing tickets from pay-and-display machines is set to increase in January next year under plans approved by the district council.

Town hall bosses are blaming cuts in government grants and a 22 per cent increase in the cost of maintaining car parks.

Some of the new charges apply to permits - known as clocks because they enable motorists using car parks to indicate their time of arrival.

The cost of an annual long-stay clock will jump from £100 to £120 and motorists buying a yearly short-stay permit will have to pay £25 instead of the current £20.

People using pay-and-display meters each time they visit a car park will also be charged more.

Parking for one hour will cost £1 instead of the current 80p and the two-hour charge will rise from £2 to £2.20. A three-hour stay will cost £2.50 instead of £2.20.

Colin Read, the council’s deputy chief executive, said parking charges in the Forest were among the lowest in Hampshire.

He added: “The decision to increase charges is always a difficult one but faced with a continuing decrease in funding and rising costs we needed to look carefully at these prices.”

The price hike has come under fire from Cllr David Harrison, inset, Liberal Democrat opposition group leader.

He said: “Charging in some car parks should be reduced, not increased. This sledgehammer approach will hit motorists and increase traffic management problems.

“Car parks such as Rumbridge Street in Totton are seriously under utilised because of the current charges. Increasing them only encourages people to park on nearby estates.”

Cllr Harrison blamed the increases on “wasteful” council spending by the council, including a £2.3 million beach hut replacement scheme at Milford on Sea.

The new fees will apply to all 51 council-owned car parks in the district.

Parking charges in the Forest have remained frozen since 2012, when the annual cost of maintaining car parks was less than £1.5 million.

The figure for the 2017/18 financial year is likely to be £1.8 million - and the council has recently spent more than £200,000 on installing new meters.