Increased council car parking charges, which will see the price of season tickets double, have been criticised by traders.

The charges, which come into effect across the Vale of White Horse district from June 1 will be the first increase in nearly two years.

Most hourly parking charges will go up between 10p and 20p for short-term stays and 20p to 50p for long term. But season ticket holders face the biggest increases.

An annual season ticket in the Charter multi-storey car park in Abingdon rises from £450 to £600, the same as for the West St Helen Street car park.

Abbey Close car park tickets rise from £200 to £290 and Audlett Drive car park's seasonal charges rise from £100 to £290. Season tickets at Rye Farm car park will rise from £80 to £290.

Karl Jeremiah, projects officer for Abingdon on Thames Chamber of Commerce, attacked the rises for season ticket holders as a tax on the people who work in the town.

Mr Jeremiah said the hourly increases were reasonable, but he called on the district council to do more to attract people into Abingdon to help revitalise the town centre.

He said: "We still believe an element of free parking for the first hour would be a boost."

Defending the increases, the leader of the district council, Paul Bizzell, said the budget for the operation and maintenance of car parks ran into deficit last year.

Mr Bizzell said: "Given the resistance to raising the revenue from long-term car parking, we have no scope for increasing the amount of free parking without raising the council tax or cutting other services."

Abingdon town councillor Sandy Lovatt attacked the increases as "anti-car".

In Oxford, the city council's Westgate car park costs £15 per day to park. A season ticket in Banbury costs £385 and in Bicester £270.

In west Oxfordshire, parking is free at district council car parks. South Oxfordshire District Council's annual season ticket fees start at £257.

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