A leading charity for the elderly is having to pay £6,000 a month for its carers to park – because a council is refusing to provide them with permits.

Age UK argues Swale Borough Council burdens its crucial work doing house calls in Faversham with “unfair and huge costs”.

It claims the authority is “ungrateful” and “lacking gratitude” because it will not hand out the same carers’ permits afforded by other councils, like Medway.

A boss at the charity says some workers have faced fines after visits have over-run because of people’s care needs.

But Swale council stressed it is “unable to provide” carer permits to Age UK Medway staff, saying special parking permissions are reserved only for NHS workers.

Age UK Medway chief executive John Norley said: “Because the council will not issue our carers with permits, they are required to buy separate, single parking tickets every time they make a house call.

“This is a huge inconvenience to our carers and a huge cost to a charity which is providing a vital service in the community, and frankly, it’s unfair.

“There’s no way of us recouping that money so we have to just take it on the chin.”

With about 35 Age UK Medway carers making between three and eight house calls every day of the week, Mr Norley estimates parking charges cost upwards of £6,000 each month.

In the Medway towns, Faversham and North West Kent, Age UK Medway assists elderly people with their activities of daily life, including taking medication, bathing and housework.

The carers have been operating in Faversham since 2018 and currently serve about 100 clients in the town.

Mr Norley says shops where single-use parking permits can be purchased are sometimes hard to come by.

On occasions, some carers have had to try their luck and go without a permit altogether.

“Some of our carers haven’t been able to find a shop and have chanced it and we have had carers issued with parking tickets” he added.

“It’s frustrating that the local authority doesn’t recognise or show gratitude for the health and social care services we provide in the community.

“We don’t receive any public subsidies. In fact, this is the opposite of that.

A Swale Borough Council spokesperson said: “We do appreciate the work being performed by local voluntary groups, individuals and service providers across the borough, and as you can imagine, we receive many requests for free or discounted parking from organisations and private service providers.

“Our policy remains that whilst we do offer some concessions for NHS doctors and nurses carrying out their duties, we are unable to provide parking permits for the many different agencies and organisations who approach us.

“The number of concessions needs to be controlled to manage on- and off-street parking availability for residents and visitors, whilst also maintaining the integrity of the permit system.”