PARKING ticket machines are still ‘months’ away from being introduced on streets in South Lakeland after a delay in the process.

Councillors have already agreed the machines can come in to Bowness, Ambleside and Kendal – but now have to consult with the public on the details.

The consultation will seek public feedback on the charges and precisely where the machines will go, rather than whether the meters should come in at all.

MORE TOP STORIES: However, the proposed 21-day consultation on the experimental traffic orders has yet to start.

Cumbria County Council says this is due to delays in whether Allerdale or Eden will take part in the countywide introduction of the machines.

South Lakeland, Barrow and Carlisle, are ‘ready to go’ but the county council wants a decision on the remaining two districts before it starts purchasing machines.

The authority says that the meters are necessary because enforcing parking across Cumbria runs at a loss. It says the only way it can address the annual shortfall in paying for parking enforcement is through tickets.

Its 2013/14 budget – passed in February – is based on an expected £700,000 saving on the service before March, which now looks unlikely to be met.

Three groups opposed to on-street parking charges attended County Hall in Kendal ahead of a meeting of the full council in a continued show of defiance against parking charges.

Members of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the Windermere and Bowness Action Group (WaBAG) and Cumbria Says No held placards and questioned councillors arriving for a full meeting of the authority.

The WaBA group said: “We greeted the county coun-cillors with placards and questions as they arrived for a full council meeting. The county councillors we spoke to are unchanged in their view.”

John McCreesh, the Lib Dem chair of the South Lakeland local committee of the county council, res-ponded: “The county council has taken the view that the costs of providing on- street parking is taken off the shoulders of council tax payers and put on the shoulders of motorists who use the service – that decision was taken back in February.”