Two Alsager business owners have had parking campaign T-shirts to highlight the emotive issue.

So incensed is Heidi Evans, owner of Phoenix Hair and Beauty in Alsager, that she and a colleague have taken the campaign to new level.

Heidi and colleague, Caron Bennion who owns the beauty side of the business, both pictured, have had T-shirts with "Save Our Parking" printed on them.    

Heidi says it's important that local residents know what could happen and has urged people to email Cheshire East Council and local MP, Fiona Bruce.

She said: "Alsager already has one of the lowest footfalls for a small town/village. This is because there is not a variety shops and boutiques.

"We mainly consist of hair, beauty and takeaways. This is due to many items nowadays being available online and you can't buy hair and beauty online.

"We already have so much competition to stay open within our living area. If we are to bring in yet another obstruction like parking charges, we will see more shops close.

"As previously stated, we are built up of hair, beauty and eateries mainly. In these industries, we face extortionate rising costs with rent, electric, products, wages etc unlike other businesses we are scared to put our prices up.

"I personally now have had no choice. My products have risen 15%, electric has doubled, wages have gone up, rent has gone up 25% and insurance has gone up by 25% and so our prices have gone up a touch to cover these costs.

"People are hesitant with price increases and if they have to pay parking in order to get their hair done it is even more expense. They will choose local places like Kidsgrove where they don't have to pay.

"Tunstall is a prime example. They brought parking charges in and now the high street is practically no more or very little and they have no stopped charging.

"Parking in Alsager on streets is already a problem and causes obstruction over driveways or obstructions to junctions. The police are unable to help deal with this apparently and we are unsure if any authority has any power over this.

"This will escalate an existing problem if parking charges were to come into play. Also, we pay for our private car park already and only get one allocated space.

"The public already obstruct our private parking to pick up a sandwich. It will cause mayhem. And let's not forget the workers - their finances have increased at home. Do you really think they can afford to pay to come to work?

"School drop offs. Single parents have to be careful with money and are already struggling. Working families are only just earning enough to cover the huge rising costs. People have children in multiple schools, it would cost an absolute fortune.

"Our town has lots of elderly that can park up and use our little eateries or get their hair done as they can't walk. This is not supporting the people.

"Volunteers working in Alsager are already taking the time and money and sometimes money out of their own pocket to support the town they live in.

"Hear the people - we are crying out telling you we've been hit hard enough and are only just managing. Don't ruin our town."

The link for residents to send comments about the proposals to Cheshire East Council is here