SUNDAY parking charges could mean churchgoers face a £10 weekly bill to attend services in Derby city centre.

Derby City Council is suggesting introducing Sunday charges at several car parks, where people can currently park for free.

Some car parks will see the same charges applied on Sundays as on other days of the week, while others, including Chapel Street and Abbey Street, will have a flat rate charge of £1.

It is part of a raft of tariff changes, which will also increase the cost of parking for short periods but lower the cost of longer stays.

The authority says the idea is to encourage people to make more of their visits to the city by spending more time in areas like Westfield and the Cathedral Quarter.

But churches say the charges could land their congregations with hefty parking fees.

Peter Fry, elder at Castlefields Church, in Traffic Street, said members of the Sunday congregation currently parked for free at nearby Liversage Street short stay car park.

But under the council's proposals, which will be debated on Tuesday, they would have to pay £2.60 for three hours.

Mr Fry said: "It will affect us quite severely because our service stars at 10.45am but often people are here from 10am onwards and we don't leave until about 1.15pm.

"Then we have another service in the evening and most people are here from 5.45pm and sometimes we don't leave until 8.30pm.

"It could end up costing us quite a bit just to park here."

It will also affect churches whose congregations use street parking meters, which will also introduce Sunday charges.

In the inner city, the maximum two-hour stay will be £3.20. In the outer area the maximum four-hour stay will be £4.

Eric Hames, property administrator for Queen's Hall Methodist Mission, in London Road, said the charges may deter people from attending church.

"Our congregation is ageing so walking a little way to the church can be difficult for some and they need to park nearby.

"One of our congregation has done some calculations and worked out that for someone attending both Sunday services as well as two of our weekday activities, such as a coffee morning, would be facing car parking charges of £10 a week. These charges could put people off attending."

Representatives of the churches have written to the council to express their concerns as part of a consultation, which ends on Friday.

The results will be fed back to the cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday, when it will make a decision.

Council leader Hilary Jones said she thought the proposals were fair.

"Some of the parking will be a flat rate of £1 on a Sunday, and I don't think that is unreasonable," she said.

"Also people of other religions have different days of worship.

"For example, people attending mosques do so on a Friday when parking charges apply. so we could be criticised at the moment as discriminating against other religions."