A city man has warned other drivers to watch out for price rises after the cost of his parking permit jumped by nearly 115pc. 

David Wernham, 64, from Lakenham, and his partner were furious to learn their cars - a Volkswagen Polo and Citroen C3 Picasso - had been recategorised from 'small' to 'medium' cars by Parking Operations.

The retired couple, who live in a Zone Y parking area, say this has pushed their costs up from £30.90 in August 2022 to £66.40.

Mr Wernham said: "Norwich City Council has recently stopped issuing permits and the new organisation responsible has reclassified our cars. 

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"I tried to renew them on the MiPermit site but found out both have been categorised as medium. 

Norwich Evening News: A Lakenham couple are annoyed about their parking permits being reclassifiedA Lakenham couple are annoyed about their parking permits being reclassified (Image: Denise Bradley/Newsquest)

"To renew the same small permits would have pushed the price up to £41.20 which seems unjustifiable enough. But to buy the medium permits would amount to a 115pc increase."

Mr Wernham and his partner - who have owned their cars for 10 and 13 years respectively - said the news came as a nasty surprise given the amount of time their vehicles were considered to be small.

"Whenever I have called to complain about this I've just been told the city council were wrongly assessing our cars for all these years," he said.

"I don't know who allocates these measurements but it is very frustrating."

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Parking Operations is a service department of the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk responsible for parking permits across the county - including Norwich. 

Norwich Evening News: Much of the city's residential areas are controlled by parking permitsMuch of the city's residential areas are controlled by parking permits (Image: Denise Bradley/Newsquest)

A spokesman for the authority said the parameters have not changed since Norwich City Council were responsible for the service.

They also said a vehicle length check has been carried out by a third party since Mr Wernham complained and the vehicles were still considered to be medium in size.

A full explanation has been issued to the couple.