Free church parking banned as 'discriminatory'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Free church parking banned as 'discriminatory'*
By PA
Last Updated: 2:01am GMT 09/11/2006
UK- A city council is to impose new car parking charges for Sunday
morning church services so they are not 'discriminatory to other faiths
and religious praying days'.
Plymouth City Council had allowed free parking in some car parks for
church-goers, but now has brought in a £1-an-hour charge so they do not
offend other faiths.
The move has angered church groups in the city, and a protest letter has
been sent to the authority.
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A council parking representative replied, explaining that free parking
would be discriminatory.
"The basis of your representation was rejected on the grounds that the
current free parking on a Sunday morning is discriminatory to other
faiths and religious praying days," they said. "Dispensation is not
given to other religions."
Church regular Mary Hooker, 66, said: "It is rather unforgiving. I have
been going to church for 50 years and I have never had to pay."
The 2001 census survey revealed that the combined total of Muslims,
Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs in Plymouth amounted to 1.1 per cent of the
population.
The city has one Mosque which serves all of the Muslim population,
estimated to be around 800, Plymouth also has one Buddhist centre,
serving about 470 people, and one Synagogue for nearly 200 practising
Jews in the community.
There are 150 Christian churches in the city.
The charges are part of a range of changes to car parking tolls across
the city. The income from all of the Sunday charging proposals will be
approximately £144,000.
The rector of Plymouth's biggest church, St Andrew's, has said that the
authority's reasoning "betrays a total lack of understanding of the
multi-faith agenda and serves only to divide communities."
The Rev Nick McKinnel said: "It does seem extraordinary to invoke other
faiths as a reason to charge those who go to church."