Residents are overwhelmingly satisfied with Ealing Council according to the latest survey but not for long.

They are just realising that resident parking charges have gone up by over 66%.

The cost of a resident parking permit has gone up from £45 to £75 a year for zones that are in operation all day.

The cost of business permits has also gone up from £250 to £600.

The 3 hour visitor parking vouchers costing 40 pence have been abolished and visitor parking vouchers now cost 50 pence per hour.

The daily visitor parking voucher previously costing £1 will now cost £3.50 - 50p per hour capped at an all day rate of £3.50.

When Ealing council originally set up Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ) the charges to residents were to recover the cost of the CPZ’s operation. The cost of permits was frozen for several years. Now the prices have gone up by around 67%.

According to the council, this is because people who don’t live in CPZs are now helping to subsidise permits.

According to residents the rises are due to the present financial challenges or government enforced council cuts. The council’s main grant has been cut by £21 million for 2011/20122 alone.

The new price increases were agreed by Cabinet in September 2010 but most of the residents are totally unaware of them.

According to council figures, the cost of implementing the CPZs during 2009/10 was around £3.8million whereas revenue received, including from parking tickets was £3.2million.

The council currently pays around £550,000 each year towards running the zones.