MORE than 1,000 people have signed a petition calling for the abolition of coastal car park charges, within days of them being introduced.

Parking charges came into force at two of the planned 10 car parks in East Lothian at the weekend – Yellowcraig and Gullane Bents.

And by Wednesday lunchtime, 1,022 people had signed a petition launched by East Lothian Council’s SNP opposition party leader Councillor Stuart Currie calling for them to be scrapped.

The controversial charges, which the council says will fund the maintenance of the car parks and their facilities, have been promised since the Labour-led council administration came into power in East Lothian in the 2012 council elections.

However, their introduction proved far from smooth, with readers contacting the Courier complaining about double yellow lines which apparently appeared and then disappeared at two car parks and potholes causing problems at Yellowcraig, where pay and display was operational at the weekend.

Councillor Norman Hampshire (Lab), a staunch supporter of the charges, took to social media to back the decision to charge for parking at the 10 car parks.

Mr Hampshire said that East Lothian was just six months away from having traffic wardens back on the streets and he insisted that the “vast majority” of drivers who used the car parks where charges were in place at the weekend had paid for tickets.

However, an East Lothian Council spokesperson – and the local authority’s own website – insists that Police Scotland is in charge of enforcing the fees.

Chief Inspector Matt Paden, Police Scotland’s Local Area Commander for East Lothian, said that he was not aware of any complaints about non-payment of tickets being made to police over the first weekend or of officers being called to either of the coastal car parking areas.

People using Yellowcraig complained that there were giant potholes at the entrance which had not been fixed.

Gill Bellshaw, who runs a local childminding group, said she was appalled by the poor state of the surface during a recent visit.

She said: “Now the council are going to charge, are they still going to leave it in the mess it is in now? It was okay when it was free to park but if they are going to charge surely they cannot expect us to park and pay for this.” And visitors at Whitesands and Barns Ness, two more car parks due to begin charging soon, said council workers painted a mile of double yellow lines on the road between them, only to return and tarmac over them a week later.

Charges are also being rolled out at: Longniddry Bents (3 locations), and the car parks at John Muir Country Park - Linkfield, Shore Road and Tyninghame Links.

Mr Currie has been leading the campaign against the fees and launched the petition as they were brought into force.

He said: “These charges are a disgrace. In the past, over 1,000 people signed a petition to stop the charges but they were just ignored by Labour and Tory councillors.

“It is now time to take our fight outwith the council chamber, which is why our petition is so important as part of the SNP campaign.

“The SNP pledge is direct and simple – we will abolish parking charges as the first act of a future SNP council.” A spokesperson for East Lothian Council said that maintenance work at some car parks was still being carried out.

He said: “The money raised through charges at 10 of our coastal car parks will go towards the maintenance of our beautiful coast, including the upkeep of the car parks themselves and beach facilities such as toilets and showers.

“A lot of work has already been carried out on a number of car park surfaces; however, there are some which still require further maintenance. This is one of the reasons the charges have been introduced.”