GUEST HOUSES in Great Yarmouth plan to fight a proposal to scrap the town’s residents’ permit parking scheme which, they claim, is vital to their business.

Jane Reynolds, of the Merivon guest house on Trafalgar Road, has launched a petition to save the scheme which gives guests guaranteed parking close to where they are staying.

The 55-year-old, who helped introduce permit parking in the town, believes they will lose holidaymakers if it is scrapped because tourists could be made to park streets away from their accommodation.

The campaign will involve sticking up posters and circulating a petition to every home which falls into Zone A of the scheme, which covers the roads bound by Marine Parade, St Nicholas Road, Euston Road, Alexandra Road and St Peter’s Road.

More than 20 householders and guest houses have already thrown their weight behind the campaign, including the Rembrandt, the Shrewsbury, the Tudor, the Marina, Beach Harbour, Kilbrannan, The Willows and the Merivon.

Mrs Reynolds currently holds two residents’ permits and a booklet of one-day permits, which she issues to guests.

She said: “I want to keep the permit parking scheme because it enables us and our customers to park close by.

“I have also spoke to a number of residents in the town who have told me that they want to keep going with the scheme.

“If it does go back to the old ways then residents, and holidaymakers, will have to park three or four streets away.

“I would be quite happy for the price of the permits to go up if it meant the scheme’s deficit would be covered, and the residents’ parking permits could remain in the town.

“I feel they should introduce pay and display in the permit areas for people visiting from outside the town, and perhaps the council could make it so permit parking only applies during the holiday season.”

The recommendation from the borough council’s car parking strategy steering group would mean current permit parking zones would be a parking ‘free-for-all’ from December.

The cost-cutting measure is aimed at preventing residents and businesses from having to pay to park near their premises, whilst eliminating the scheme’s annual deficit – which has grown over the years from nearly �27,000 in 2007/2008, to close to �97,000 in 2010/2011.

The decision on whether to scrap the scheme will have to have final approval from both Norfolk county and Yarmouth borough councils.

Currently, a resident’s permit costs �25 annually, whilst a business permit costs �100.

More than 610 residential permits, and 840 visitor permits, were issued between April 2010 and March 2011.

Seventy business permits and 140 business visitor permits were issued over the same period.