Churches and sports clubs in Bath have expressed their fury at plans to impose parking charges on Sundays and later into the evenings every day of the week.

Bath and North East Somerset Council is consulting people over whether the operation of controlled parking zones in the city centre and around Bathwick should be changed from 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday to 8am to 8pm every day.

But there are claims that the potential changes - affecting residents' parking and on-street parking areas - will threaten Bath's entertainment businesses and sports clubs as well as affecting Sunday churchgoers.

Bath Abbey administrator Charles Curnock said the changes would directly affect the hundreds of people who drive into the city centre to attend Sunday services, as well as discourage people from coming into the city to take part in a variety of evening activities.

He said: "Bath depends on a thriving commercial life and the period between 5.30pm and 7pm is the relatively quiet period when we should be encouraging people to stay a little longer or come earlier for entertainment, meals or events.

"The proposed order will have the opposite effect.

"There are many voluntary activities happening in the evening in the city; a lot of these start between 6pm and 8pm. This order will discourage people from getting involved."

The authority says the move is a direct result of requests from residents' associations, which have claimed finding a space is difficult for parking permit holders between 6pm and 8pm.

But Mr Curnock added: "For this group, surely a far better arrangement for everyone would be for B&NES to provide inexpensive parking in one of the city centre car parks."

There are currently notices up on the streets which might be affected, outlining the potential changes and asking for people's views.

In zone one, which includes Pulteney Road, Laura Place, Henrietta Road and Great Pulteney Street, there are plans to turn the existing limited waiting bays in Pulteney Road into pay-and-display areas, while single lines at Daniel Mews would become double yellow.

This particular move has been criticised by members of Bath Mini Rugby Club, which meets at the Recreation Ground on Sunday mornings.

Chairman of the Minis, Mark Evans, said: "This will have a detrimental effect on the Minis as we are already restricted to 12 car parking spaces per pitch.

"Once again this shows the total disregard that B&NES has for our club."

Bath Chamber of Commerce has told the council the plans would damage Bath's economy.

Spokesman Ian Bell said: "We have consistently argued in favour of policies which support the important evening economy.

"We remain concerned that the current policy may have a negative impact on the fragile recovery and hurt Bath's growing reputation as a great place to visit.

"Our members are also very concerned about the effects these proposals would have when it comes to trading on Sundays.

"Customers will now need to pay for parking in areas which were previously free or be more restricted.

"We know that for many retailers, Sunday is the second busiest trading day of the week and they rely on that business to support their operations. They are fearful of the effect that parking charges will have on their customers, potentially driving them away to other retail destinations."

Bath city centre manager Andrew Cooper, who has argued the city needs to improve the early evening experience for visitors, said he had nothing to add to the chamber's statement.

The deadline for comments - to parking@bathnes.gov.uk - is today.