A town councillor has accused Buckinghamshire Council of failing to update signs in an Amersham car park after introducing new parking restrictions.

Mark Roberts, a Lib Dem representative on Amersham Town Council, noticed the difference between parking costs listed on signage in Sycamore Road car park and new, extended parking tariffs introduced by Buckinghamshire Council on September 1, last week.

The new charges, which extended the car park's hours until 7pm and introduced restrictions on Sundays and Bank Holidays, was already an unpopular move, Cllr Roberts said, with the "misleading" signs further disadvantaging less digitally-savvy, older residents who wouldn't be able to see the revised tariffs on RingGo.

He also reported the issue to the council's FixMyStreet platform on Friday, September 20, suggesting it was unfairly charging drivers by "failing incompetently" to put up new signs before enforcing the changes.

The tariffs on the sign versus online (Image: Mark Roberts) READ MORE: Emergency services close Amersham road amid 'ongoing' flooding issues

Cllr Roberts and eight of his fellow councillors described the new measures as "a kick in the teeth" in a letter penned after they were approved by Buckinghamshire Council in July – according to leader Martin Tett, to ease the budgetary pressures faced by the unitary authority.

A letter penned by the town councillors said the new restrictions "rubbed salt in the wound" of a series of technical issues with parking machines in Amersham over the summer, and hadn't taken into account the "widespread" local opposition to the "short-sighted" plans.

Steven Broadbent, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transport said: "The parking charges at Sycamore Road car park are being introduced following a public consultation that ran earlier this year.  Sunday charges will start to harmonise the hours of control with other areas across the county where Sunday charging has been in place for a number of years.

“There is always a transition period for the changeover to car park signage, this was completed by mid-afternoon on Saturday, ahead of the Sunday parking period. Tariffs are also displayed on the machines as well as the RingGo system.

“A number of payment methods are currently in use at this car park, including cash, card, and RingGo. A number of parking machines in the area are very old and beyond their functional life expectancy, however we are keeping them going for as long as we can by utilising and sourcing parts for them from other machines. We will continue to do this for as long as is practically and economically possible to offer customers a variety of ways to pay for their parking.”