TWO-CAR families in Southampton city centre are to be hit with a £450 bill for parking outside their own homes.

The pricey permits, currently free, were agreed in a council meeting last night alongside 50p an hour night-time charges for city centre parking - also currently free.

Motorists group the AA blasted the hike as "just screwing money from residents to fill council coffers".

Night time charging is expected to generate an extra £150,000. The first major review of both on- and off-street city centre parking charges since 1999 sees some raised by as much as 50 per cent, with many others going up by a quarter or a third.

A one-hour stay on street at Bedford Place will jump from 90p to £1.20, up by a third, under the new charges, which come into force on April 4.

However, it is the £450 second permit, which applies to any central resident wanting to park a second car on the street, that is set to have the biggest impact.

"Absolutely staggering", was Labour transport spokesman Richard Williams' verdict.

Night time charging, which will see visitors to the centre paying 50p an hour between 5.30 and 10.30pm, also threatened the city's flourishing evening economy, the council Cabinet meeting heard.

"The whole purpose of this is simply to raise money," said Councillor Alec Samuels, leader of the Conservatives.

"It will be unpopular and will damage the economy of our city."

City leader Adrian Vinson denied the Lib Dem scheme was simply about making money.

"That is quite clearly and explicitly not the case," he said. "This is about managing parking in the city. The fact that it has a revenue implication may well be a secondary benefit. The average increase is roughly in line with inflation and I think that is reasonable."

Chairman of the Federation of Southampton Residents' Associations Peter Wirgman said: "It seems to be a dedicated campaign to stop cars getting in at all. Having a car in the city is going to become an expensive hobby."

Bert Morris, deputy director of the AA Motoring Trust, said: "The permit sounds very expensive and the point is, what benefit will residents get for that?"

PARKING CHARGES: THE FACTS

Prices for using car parks and on-street bays are going up, some by as much as 50 per cent. The amount depends on the location of the car park.

Charges for both on- and off-street parking in the city centre will run until 10.30pm, including Sundays and bank holidays. Normal charges stop at 5.30pm to be replaced by a city centre-wide rate of 50p per hour.

Single yellow line hours will be extended to 10.30pm and will run from 12pm to 5.30pm on Sundays and bank holidays as well.

The first residents' permit is free but a second residents permit costs £450.

The off-street all day parking charge, which rose from £5.50 to £6 a day in April 2003, is unchanged.

Five-day season tickets for off-street car parks are to rise from the equivalent of £4.61 per day to £5.38. Seven-day season tickets will be the equivalent of £4.67 a day, up from £3.84.

Three extra parking attendants and one extra customer services officer will be hired to police the scheme.

Last month the council announced business parking permits are to rise from £52 a year to £252.