MOTORISTS have been angered by a decision to raise car park charges by up to 150 per cent next month.

From March 1, all council-run car parks in Waltham Forest will cost £1 an hour, or £5 for the whole day. The new scale of charges will replace the existing two-tier system where some cost 40p an hour and others 60p.

At the shabby Larkshall Road car park, Highams Park, which currently costs 40p an hour or £2 for the whole day, there was a mixed response to the price increases.

John Smead from Chingford said the facility was not good value for money and he would not be using it after March 1.

He said: "I will park in the street, or I'll walk to the station or get a bus.

"A couple of years ago it was £1 for the whole day. When the council say it has not put it up for two years, it doesn't say that it put it up 100 per cent last time.

"Since I have been parking here I have had my car scratched across the bonnet. A whole row of cars had that done. I've had the wiper ripped off my windscreen, and the side window smashed in. There is no safety in parking your car here.

"You are forever seeing broken glass. They have done nothing to this car park since it cost £1 for the whole day."

Tracy Moran, who commutes to Highams Park from Cambridge, says the area is a magnet for anti-social behaviour.

She told the Guardian she had seen two teenagers loitering, one of them attempting to steal from a car whose owner had left a window slightly open.

She said: "I didn't dare get out of my car - it is getting dangerous to park there. There is no protection, no maintenance and it is badly lit. The council is insane to put the prices up."

But others thought the price increases were reasonable.

John Anderson, of Sewardstone Gardens, Chingford, said: "Parking by the station all day for £2 - there are not many places you can get away with that. Five pounds a day seems more in line with what you would expect."

l A WALTHAM Forest Council spokesman said: "The charges are being increased as part of the council's annual budget-setting exercise, and these particular charges have not been increased for more than two years.

"The money raised goes towards the maintenance and running costs of the borough's car parks, as well as carrying out enforcement."

The council would not confirm whether the Larkshall Road site, which is blighted by graffiti and flytipping, would be brought up to the same standard as the borough's other car parks.

A spokesman said: "The future of Larkshall Road car park is yet to be determined."