THE chairman of Minehead Chamber of Trade is urging businesses to lobby district and county councillors to ensure on-street parking charges are not introduced in the town.

Marcus Kravis said he feared town centre trade would be decimated if people had to pay to park in places like The Avenue and The Parade as out-of-town supermarkets offered plentiful free parking.

He has written to all members of the chamber asking them to voice their disquiet over the possible introduction of civil parking enforcement with their local councillors.

West Somerset Council is due to decide in June whether to join a countywide civil parking enforcement partnership, spearheaded by Somerset County Council.

Under the partnership, the responsibility for imposing on-street parking restrictions would pass from the police to a taskforce employed by local councils.

The county council would take charge of the scheme and local staff currently employed as car park wardens by the district councils would be transferred to the new regime.

District authorities would then be able to buy enforcement services for both on and off-street car parking from the county authority.

While the county council would retain any income derived from on-street penalties and cash generated by on-street charges or residents' parking schemes, the districts would retain the income from their off-street car parks.

District councillors have already been advised that civil parking enforcement would crack down on the abuse of short-stay parking spaces in particular.

But Mr Kravis said claims that local business owners were largely responsible for clogging-up short-stay spaces in Minehead were untrue.

However, he is also asking chamber members to let him know the names of any businessmen and women who openly flout the current on-street parking restrictions.

Mr Kravis agreed the existing on-street restrictions should be enforced, but said it would be "insulting" to charge for on-street parking when local councils had "failed" to manage Minehead's parking problems for many years.

"Paid-for on-street parking would drive more people away from the town centre when small local business need as much help as possible.

"If on-street parking is charged for in Minehead then there should be a level playing field across the district which would mean that Blue Anchor, Dunster, Dulverton, Porlock, Williton, Watchet are all treated in the same way.

"I see no sensible reason for other places in West Somerset to be treated differently as the cost and revenue for parking should be looked at districtwide," Mr Kravis said.

It has been estimated that West Somerset Council would save around £45,000 a year by joining the partnership as it would only need to buy "enforcement hours", while the county council would cover the costs of wardens travelling to and from areas.

Councillors have been told district council staff currently spend a quarter of their time travelling between locations, while better enforcement of on-street restrictions would force people into car parks, increasing the authority's revenue.

But some councillors have already raised concerns about the proposals being a "stealth tax" on motorists and questioned whether the council's car parks have enough spare capacity to cope with the additional motorists who would be forced out of short-stay, on-street spaces.

A detailed financial report on the implications of joining a civil parking enforcement scheme is due to be considered at the June meeting of the cabinet, before going to all councillors later the same month.