PARKING charges should cease in order to jump-start the local economy, says a councillor.

Ben Berry, Conservative councillor for Windermere, has set-up a ‘Free Our High Street Parking’ petition to remove parking charges after a Welsh town where parking meters were vandalised saw a 50 per cent increase in footfall.

It follows a statement released by Marcus Jones MP, which said: “Unfair parking fines push up the cost of living and undermine high streets. Instead, councils should be focusing efforts on supporting our town centres and motorists, not by raising money through over-zealous parking enforcement.”

Cllr Berry said: “Parking charges are a disincentive for people to shop in a town centre. I want to get enough public support to talk to SLDC and I want an open, honest debate with the council.”

But Cllr Giles Archibald, South Lakeland’s portfolio holder for town centres, said reducing parking charges would ‘cause more problems than it solves’.

He said it would ‘clog-up the town’ as people would take up parking spaces all day.

SLDC also receives revenue from car parks that, if it was lost, could lead to a 40 per cent increase in council tax.

Cllr Berry’s petition is available at www.ben-berry.co.uk/campaigns/free-our-high-street-parking/.