Traders in a seaside town fear they will struggle to survive if “crazy” plans to hike parking charges by up to £2.10 an hour are given the green light.

Canterbury City Council wants to increase hourly rates in Whitstable to as much as £3.70 - the highest of any coastal town in Kent and among the UK’s most expensive.

But business bosses say the potential effect on visitor numbers could be the final nail in the coffin as they fight the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis.

They spoke to KentOnline as a petition is launched in an attempt to force a rethink of the proposals.

Shopkeeper Dawn Hackett says her specialist food shop in Harbour Street - The Cheese Box - would be among those damaged by the changes.

“If this policy goes ahead my shop won’t survive, none us will survive,” said the 59-year-old.

“People know when they are being fleeced and ripped off and they think that Whitstable is doing it, but we’re not doing it, Canterbury City Council is doing it.

“The amount of money Canterbury has taken from us is ludicrous - they’ve raised parking higher and higher and they have constantly pillaged the town to pay for their own projects.”

The divisive proposals were unveiled in October as part of the council’s new draft budget and are set to generate more than £1 million in extra revenue.

It will see rates increase most in Whitstable’s biggest car park, Gorrell Tank, and nearby Keams Yard, which currently cost £3.10 an hour between April and September and £1.60 the rest of the year.

The city council wants to ditch these seasonal tariffs - which are essentially used as a tourist tax on summer visitors - leaving residents facing an all-year-round rate of £3.70.

It would mean motorists enjoying a four-hour trip to the town this weekend paying £22.20 instead of £9.60 - a rise of 130%.

Papers show the hikes at these two Whitstable sites alone would generate an additional £410,000.

Meanwhile, the town’s Beach Walk, Harbour and Oyster car parks would also see their rates rise from £2.50 to £3.70, with free morning parking axed in Middle Wall.

Justine Setterfield owns and operates the Whitstable Harbour Gin store.

She worries the higher charges rates will deter potential customers from visiting her shop in the harbour’s South Quay Shed.

“I think it’s shocking - they’re going to be out-pricing people,” she said.

“People won’t come, and it’s not just the tourists, it’s also people who live locally.

“It feels to me like they want to push trade away from the high street. If it becomes known that Whitstable is expensive for parking, then people will go to other places.

“To have a day in Whitstable, six hours, say, do some shopping, have some lunch, take the kids to the beach, we’re talking £20 - why would people want to add that onto the expense?”

The council’s proposals will also see charges rise in Canterbury and Herne Bay as part of a revamped system grading the popularity of the district’s car parks.

Those in band one - four of them in the city centre and five in Whitstable - will all be covered by the £3.70 tariff.

A further 11 sites in band two will have an hourly rate of £2.70, while motorists using the 14 car parks in band three will have to pay £1.90.

The Labour/Lib Dem administration says the intention of the scheme is to encourage motorists to think more about where they park, and to use public transport more.

Cllr Alex Ricketts, whose brief on the authority’s cabinet covers parking, says the council needs to find additional cash in the face of government cuts to local budgets.

“I would love to be in the position to not put parking charges up at all, but I would still be consulting on making changes to the banding system to discourage people driving into town [and encourage them to use public transport instead],” said the Liberal Democrat.

“In the past, the approach has been to put parking up by a certain percentage - whatever the council think they can kind of get away with - and then hoping it will go away for a while.

“But now we’re trying to do something different with this consultation - getting people to think more carefully about the journeys they make.

“From a Whitstable point of view, if people are worried that it’s going to cost a lot of money to park in Gorrell Tank, for example, have a look at the other car parks that are cheaper.”

Opposition politicians have branded the proposals “complete overkill” and have launched a petition calling for the proposed tariffs to be scrapped.

Cllr Dan Watkins (Con), who is coordinating the campaign in Herne Bay, says the policy is draconian.

“It is a terrible idea,” he said.

“It will cause a lot of harm to families already struggling with the cost of living, and will drive many businesses to the wall.

“Councils regularly increase parking rates, but just by a moderate amount to support their spending priorities, but this is a huge increase. It is complete overkill.

“That's why I launched a petition, so that we can demonstrate the huge strength of opposition from our community to these parking proposals.

“Increasing parking charges this much likely will reduce traffic on the roads, as people choose not to visit our district's high streets and seafronts.

“But this will come at great cost, because it will cause local businesses to close and workers to lose their jobs, since so many shoppers will be put off.”

Parking charges for the 2023/24 financial year were frozen in the majority of Canterbury’s car parks by the previous Conservative administration, with summer rate rises of between 20p and 30p introduced across Herne Bay and Whitstable.

A public consultation on the draft budget, which includes the parking charge increases, is running until Monday, January 8.

A vote on the final draft will be taken before April.