Winchester drivers are preparing to fork out for hefty increases in the cost of parking from April 1.

New tariffs announced by Winchester City Council show the cost of parking in two of the major city long-stay car parks, Tower Street and Gladstone Street, is to increase from £4.80 to £6.

Meanwhile all-day parking at another city centre car park, St Peters, is to be abolished altogether except for permit holders.

Motorists will still be able to park for up to four hours at the site, off Gordon Road.

A city council spokesman confirmed that the move was being made to compensate for the loss of short-stay car parking in Jewry Street while the new library was being built.

Other parking charges for long-stay car parks are also set to rise. Charges at the two Chesil Street car parks, along with Durngate, Cattle Market and Worthy Lane, will go up from £2.80 to £3.50 for stays of more than four hours.

These increases come on top of rises of up to 100 per cent in the cost of residents' parking permits.

Short-stay car parking is also going up, with the cost of a ticket to rise on average by 10p per hour.

Transport chiefs say the changes are needed as charges haven't gone up in several years, and because the authority wants to find an additional £426,000 a year.

However to ease the burden, the authority has agreed to freeze the cost of the park-and-ride, which will stay at £1.50.

Motoring organisations have warned that increasing the cost of parking is unlikely to solve Winchester's chronic traffic problems.

A spokesman for the RAC said: "Until families can easily and cheaply catch public transport to where they want to go, all increasing parking fees will do is upset a massive cross section of the voting public."

Motorists are also to pay more to leave their car at Winchester's Cossack Lane car park.

The cost of one hour at the short-stay car park will now increase from 60p to 70p, while up to four hours will now cost £3 instead of £2.40.