1,000 residents sign petition opposing controversial plans to install pay and display machines in High Street.

HONITON is on a collision course with Devon County Council over controversial plans to introduce pay and display parking charges in High Street.

The fight to keep free on-street parking will reach a climax at a public meeting in Honiton next week.

A petition opposing the charges, which have already been introduced in Seaton, has attracted around 1,000 signatures, so far. The deadline for signing the petition is Friday.

Traders and shoppers have been queuing up to sign the petition, organised by Honiton and District chamber of Commerce and Industry.

It will be presented to county councillor Stuart Hughes at a public meeting in Honiton on Monday (December 13).

“There are a lot of petition sheets to be collected,” said the chamber’s chairman, Colin Wright.

“Everybody I have spoken to is dead against the introduction of charges.

“I am concerned it is going to stop people from the villages coming to Honiton.

“And parents, who pick up their children from school, will no longer nip into the shops - they will just drive straight to Tesco.”

Devon County Council plans to install pay and display machines in market towns across the county.

Parking will be free for the first half an hour and then 60p per hour thereafter - although there will be a time limit on how long motorists can stay parked up. Traders are concerned that half an hour is not long enough for people to visit the post office and that motorists won’t pay to park.