Motorist and businesses are being urged to have their say on controversial proposals to increase Council car park charges by ten per cent.

There are also plans to introduce on-street parking charges for even more city centre roads to balance the budget.

Bradford Council's Executive Committee decided yesterday to advertise traffic orders leading to the introduction of the proposals. But Labour group leader Councillor Ian Greenwood - who tried to get the proposals shelved - said people should grasp the chance to object to the plans if they wanted to stop them.

All representations would have to be considered by the Council before it could go ahead with the plans, which officers say would make the city centre safer.

The new charges would be for long-stay places in some parts of the city, where officers say businesses and residents have problems getting into their premises.

Executive Committee members were told the increased revenue of £100,000 a year from the car parks would cover the inflation costs of the last three years.

A pilot scheme with free parking in the Westgate car park after 3.30pm is also proposed.

But Coun Greenwood said the proposals should not be advertised until an overall regeneration strategy for the city centre could be considered. He said businesses were concerned and he felt the Council should not go ahead at times of economic stress. But executive member for the environment Councillor Anne Hawkesworth said they were not agreeing to the proposals -but simply to an advertisement being placed to give people the chance to object.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Councillor Jeanette Sunderland said the advertisements should be placed because they gave people the opportunity to come forward.

The committee decided to submit a joint application with the Health Authority to the Government to establish a care trust in Bradford for mental health and learning difficulties.

A two-month consultation led to 271 written responses with many local users, carers and statutory agencies saying they supported the proposals.

The move was described by Councillor Dave Green (Lab, Odsal) as a step towards the end of the Social Services Department and Coun Sunderland said users should be asked about it when it was running and examined by the scrutiny committees.