THE city council has amended parking rules near Winchester station, despite objections.

The large echelon' parking bay, close to the station car park in St Paul's Hill, will remain available to non-permit holders for a maximum limited period of two hours.

However, the bay on the opposite side of the road, outside The Trinity Centre, and those close to St Paul's Surgery further up St Paul's Hill, will become resident permit holders only from 8am until 10pm Mondays to Saturdays.

Council officers had also wanted to make the bay by the station permit parking only, but stopped short because of objections from residents and businesses.

Max Forni, a St Paul's Hill resident, said: "Since the St Paul's hospital development, adequate parking is not being provided. By slowly removing on street parking, it puts more and more pressure on little places like St Paul's Hill."

Jennifer Ferguson, of Happy Feet Chiropody, in Stockbridge Road, spoke on behalf of herself and business neighbour Rapport Hairdressing.

She said: "We have seen all the parking in the street disappear. St Paul's Hill is the only area left for clients and customers.

"We have the parking bays at the front of the shops, but they are for one hour, and 50 per cent of the appointments are for over an hour.

"The other option available to us is to purchase permits. We can have up to 50 a year, but it is quite expensive and it is not viable for us to have one for every single client."

Neville Crisp, assistant traffic engineer at Winchester City Council, said: "We are not taking anything away from the residents that they don't have already - it can only benefit them.

"We listened to the businesses and that is why we introduced the slight change."