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Plan to allow Christians free parking in town 'unfair to other faiths'
Plans to give Christians free parking in a town could be blocked because councillors fear offending other religions.
Tewkesbury Borough Council in Gloucestershire is considering scrapping charges for churchgoers throughout its car parks on Sunday mornings.
Mayor Brian Calway, a Conservative who represents Prior's Park, chaired a working group of six reviewing the town's parking strategy.
But a majority of the team writing the preliminary report felt the idea should not become policy as it could be viewed as unfair to other faiths.
Coun Mike Collins (Lib Dem, Brockworth), who spoke against the scheme, worried it would be perceived as discriminatory in "the modern PC world".
Mr Collins said yesterday: "When the word Christian was used and Sunday worship, I felt that my view was there were many people around Tewkesbury who are not Christian these days. I'm not the most PC person but to single out one section would be discriminatory.
"In the back of my mind was that someone who wasn't a Christian could complain about prejudice against them. We have to be totally inclusive."
Mr Calway commented: "We're a Christian country. I fail to see anything discriminatory about providing facilities for practitioners of the basic religion of this country.
"It's a nonsense to worry about that in a Christian town – we haven't got any mosques or synagogues."
At the moment, the exemption only applies until 12.30pm in a single car park in Oldbury Road, close to Holy Trinity Church.
The mayor favours extending the exemption to all car parks to take into account the other six churches in Tewkesbury.
A Jehovah's Witness hall is the only establishment in the town which differs from the standard Christian programme.
The parking review will now go before the council's executive committee on Wednesday before going to the council on January 20.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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