SHOPPERS will be hit with parking charge increases of up to 28per cent from tomorrow while hundreds of council officers escape any rise at all.

Councillors were today accused of driving people away from town centre stores and of showing favouritism towards their own staff.

Environmental campaigners also said the council was throwing its drive to reduce long-stay parking in Blackburn town centre into chaos.

On-street parking charges will rise from 70p to 90p (28 per cent) for an hour while parking on Blackburn Market will go up from 60p to 70p (16.6 per cent) for an hour.

But the 750 motorists with contract permits, issued on either a quarterly basis for £95 or £350 for a year, will not have to pay an increase.

All but 91 of the permit holders work for either Blackburn with Darwen Council or private firm Capita, which provides a number of its services. Council staff also receive a subsidy on the contract charge.

Percentage rises are lower the longer people stay in the town and long stay parking over six hours also remains unchanged at £3.50 an hour, with the council saying the total revenue increase matches inflation.

The increases are exactly the same as those the council had planned to introduced a week before Christmas shopping season started.

After the Evening Telegraph revealed its plans, a storm of protest forced the council to delay the increases and it promised a review of how the increases were distributed.

Coun Colin Rigby, leader of the Tories, said: "It would make much more sense to spread the cost out evenly, rather than appear to do it in a manner which gives favouritism to long-stay parkers, most of who are employed by the council. These are well-paid people after all."

Coun John Williams, a Tory councillor, said: "No-one who parks in the town all day is going to be encouraged to try and come in by bus if they are not paying any more."

A recent survey of council staff revealed more than 70per cent commuted to work in cars by themselves and a spokesman for environmental group Greenpeace said: "We would expect a council to do a lot more to get people out of their cars and on to public transport, for the good of the environment."

David Cottam, president of the Blackburn and District Chamber of Trade, said: "We know the council held off putting up the prices but we had hoped they would look at it again.

"They say that overall it is an inflationary rise, but they are massive hikes for shoppers just coming into town for a couple of hours. They could quite easily go and shop somewhere else.

"I can't understand why people parking all day aren't getting any increase at all."

Coun Kay said: "It could be seen that increasing short stay charges and leaving long-stay charges alone contradicts our desire to get more town centre workers travelling by other means.

"But we are currently reviewing our long-stay parking provision and we felt it was not the right time to introduce rises for long-stay parking. We are also looking at a green travel plan for employees.

"We do, however, aim to encourage council employees to come to work by other means, or to car share."

He added that the permit charges would be reviewed in April.

A spokesman for Unison said: "Until the late 1990s, council employees used to get free car parking.

"It has become very expensive and I would imagine staff will be very opposed to any higher charges."

Parking charges at the privately-owned The Mall shopping centre remain unchanged, with shoppers paying 70p for a one-hour stay.