Residents are vowing to fight a council plan that would end town centre parking permits in Otley.

Leeds City Council has written to permit-holders across the town to explain that it wants to call time on the scheme by not renewing existing passes – which allow them to use nearby council car parks for free – once the current holders either move or die.

Councillor Colin Campbell (Lib Dem, Otley and Yeadon) insists the move, which came out of discussions linked to the ongoing Otley parking review, would remove an historical “anomaly” and only affect about 20 houses.

But residents in the streets affected, which include North Parade, Boroughgate and Courthouse Street, dispute that and Otley’s MP Greg Mulholland fears removing permits will add to the towns already strained parking arrange-ments.

North Parade resident Josie Smith has started an online petition opposing the change, which reads: “It feels like the council has an anti-parking strategy for Otley residents that started around five years ago.

“Residents’ parking bays for other car parks in Otley have also been removed meaning that at busy times at the weekend it is really difficult to park at all, and is especially hard for those elderly residents or families with very young children.

“The city council says it is only looking at the prospect of withdrawing the parking permits; but do they really believe they would be able to push this through without a fight?”

She told the Wharfedale & Airedale Observer: “We can’t understand why all of a sudden they are doing this and wanting to take them away. In the letter the council talks about ‘implementing town planning guidelines in relation to town centre parking’, but guidelines are just that – they don’t have to be followed.

“This won’t just affect North Parade, I have a friend in Boroughgate who has had this letter and there are people with permits in other streets too.

“My husband and I both have a permit but I only found out about this from a neighbour.

We’re actually still waiting to receive a letter and would not even have known about this if our neighbour hadn’t shown us hers, so their records about who has or hasn’t got a permit must be out of date and there will be other people who haven’t had a letter about this too.

“The permits were introduced years ago to help people on streets where the council had put down yellow lines, many on bus routes, which stopped people being able to park outside their homes.

“But up until now we’ve been able to use the North Parade car park, using our permits. They’re saying things won’t change for current permit holders but my concern is for people coming into the town.

“And it will obviously affect the interest in my property, should I move, and the sale value, because people, especially elderly people or those with young children, don’t want to have to park their car a long way away from where they live.

“When we bought this house two years ago one of the reasons we chose it was because we could park just across from our house.”

Coun Campbell pointed out that only a minority of people in each of the streets affected actually had permits.

And, stressing that the change would not affect current permit holders, he said phasing the scheme out altogether by not renewing them would remove an “inequity”.

He said: “This will certainly remove an anomaly and make the situation clearer about parking in Otley.

“There are no proposals to withdraw parking permits from those residents in the town centre of Otley who already have them.

“They have been told that those permits will be honoured and will be renewed if they need them to be (for example if they change cars).

“The letter simply says that we will not accept any new applications for permits from anyone.

“But if someone who came along in the future who was disabled, for example, and had an exceptional case we would of course issue a permit for that.”

Mr Mulholland said: “Parking in Otley is already difficult enough without these extra measures being introduced.

“We all recognise the need for a sensible parking strategy but the needs of local people must be taken into account. I hope the council will take the time to properly consider how their plans will affect the people of Otley.”

Mrs Smith says any permit holders who want to find out more can e-mail keepotleyparking@googlemail.com, while the petition can be viewed by internet users at petitiononline.com/OtleyPk/petition.html.