A Cheshire East councillor has started a petition against his own administration's plans to introduce parking charges in the evenings and at weekends.

Cllr Rob Moreton (Ind), who is the mayor of Congleton, says if the proposals go ahead, businesses will be impacted as will residents who park overnight on council-owned car parks.

The Congleton councillor recently spoke out against the Labour/Independent-run council's new parking strategy, which will see the end to free parking in many towns and villages and a hike in existing charges for others.

He was removed from the highways and transport committee before that vote on introducing new charges took place in January.

Today he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he had started the petition to raise residents' awareness of the additional proposals from the council to extend charging across the borough into the evenings and Sundays.

In the petition posted on change.org, Cllr Moreton says: "I believe that small towns like Congleton, Sandbach, Holmes Chapel, Alsager, Middlewich and other towns across the borough need to have their night time and Sunday economy protected.

Cllr Moreton says if the proposals go ahead, businesses will be impacted as will residents who park overnight on council-owned car parks.

"Another victim of these extended car parking charges will be residents across Cheshire East who live on terraced streets that will have nowhere to park, as they have used these car parks overnight and Sundays for many years.

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"This will be another burden to the most vulnerable in this cost of living crisis."

At the time of writing 578 people have signed the petition.

Cheshire East Council says free parking in towns like Middlewich, Holmes Chapel, Alsager and Sandbach will end in October.

Existing tariffs in towns like Crewe, Nantwich, Macclesfield, Knutsford and Congleton will also increase that month.

But despite the extra income raised from the new charges, the highways department still faces a budget shortfall of £800,000, which the council hopes to plug by implementing Sunday and evening tariffs as well as introducing cashless machines across the borough.

A public consultation on these additional proposals will take place later this year.

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