Business owners and community leaders have blasted ‘outrageous’ proposals to install car parking charges on a popular high street.

Lancashire County Council have unveiled plans to introduce pay and display parking on Queen Street in Great Harwood. Bosses say it will help ‘ensure turnover of spaces’ and make it easier for people to visit local businesses.

However the scheme has been strongly condemned by local stakeholders as ‘lunacy’ and ‘horrendous for local businesses’.

Glen Melling, of Townsend Records on Queen Street, said: “It would be very hard on the shops. It’s not like the parking spaces are always full so I don’t see how they can justify it. They are not going to make a lot of money out of it.

“Quite a few people like parking up for 20 minutes and popping into a shop but having this will nail it on the head completely.

“I can’t see people wanting to pay money to do it unless it’s a very low amount.”

Coun Gareth Molineux said this proposal is ‘outrageous’. He said: Local traders such in Great Harwood are already struggling to keep their services on the high street and car users already pay enough in road tax and fuel duty.

“The Labour group at Hyndburn understand that parking charges are regressive in towns such as ours and will put shoppers off visiting.

“Councils should be doing more to support our high streets not taxing our residents to use them.”

Coun Noordad Aziz added: “This is simply not acceptable and I will be fighting this as this will be horrendous for local businesses in the town and is lunacy. I will be fighting this all the way.”

The proposals will be discussed at a meeting on Monday, December 3.

Car parking charges currently apply to areas of Preston and Lancaster and county hall want to expand the scheme into other towns including Great Harwood.

A spokesperson said: “A number of areas are under consideration but no decisions have been made about where these spaces will be introduced.

“Applying charges to on-street parking can help to ensure turnover of spaces where there is demand, making it easier for people to visit local businesses.

“There is a requirement to consult on all new traffic regulations, so people will have an opportunity to give their views before they are introduced.”

Councillors have launched a petition against the scheme which has been signed by around 200 people.

To view the petition click here.

Big cuts on the way to save council £77m

Plans will be put before Lancashire County Council’s cabinet next week designed to save the authority £77m.

The proposed measures include reductions in the number of street lights operating in residential areas, better enforcement of bus lanes which are not currently covered by cameras and the introduction of on-street pay and display spaces in some areas.

But the biggest savings will come from the adult and children’s services budgets.

Here, there are plans to move adults with learning disabilities from residential care into specialist flats, reduce the level of direct payments which individuals are allowed to hold for care contingencies from ten weeks to four and also to end the short break service for children with special educational needs.

The equivalent of 163 full-time jobs will be lost if the proposals are accepted, 30 of which are currently vacant, but just over 100 new permanent roles will be created.

It is understood that there could be some opportunities for redeployment.

Leader Geoff Driver said the proposals were about setting the council’s priorities to make its most important services sustainable.

He said: “If we don’t make the finances viable we won’t be able to provide the services to the really vulnerable people of Lancashire and that’s what we’ve promised to do.

“We’ll be providing better services and we will save in the long run if we don’t have to pay for more expensive care in the future.”

More than £3m is expected to be saved by providing alternatives to residential care.

If the proposals are adopted by cabinet on December 3 they are expected to reduce the county council’s budget deficit to £46m by 2022/23.

That means the authority will then be able to set a balanced budget for the next four years, when it was previously unexpected to be able to do so beyond 2019/20.

The biggest individual saving under the plans would come from a reduction to payments made to independent providers who supply overnight care workers.

Almost £7m is expected to saved by bringing the so-called “sleep-in fee” in line with the level paid to county council staff doing the same job.

Meanwhile, the union UNISON has expressed “concern” about a review of home care packages which currently require two staff to see if new equipment could help them be delivered by one worker instead.

Area organiser Jason Hunter said he would have to look at the entire package before commenting in detail, but added that the union would “support any workers who may be put under pressure as a result of the changes”.