VILLAGERS are 'up in arms' following the Royal Borough's decision to introduce parking charges across the Sunnings.

The council's plans to start charging residents to use the A30 London Road car park in Sunningdale, alongside the Queens Road car park in Sunninghill, has been met with animosity by unhappy neighbours.

Duncan Rayner, a resident of Onslow Road, said: "We spent five years campaigning to get the borough to put the car park in and no one knew the charges would be happening until it was fait accompli.

"The car park is used by people coming to the chemists for their prescriptions and the charity shops to drop stuff off, people who are only going to be there a few minutes. The charging system will be that people who have advantage cards will be able to park for 50p for three hours, but the big problem is that it will be £1.50 for any one else.

"We are right on the edge of the borough so most of the village's customers come from outside of the borough, such as Chobham, Windlesham, Bagshot and Virginia Water and will have to pay £1.50 for three hours with no return for an hour.

"We had a system whereby the traders had a certain proportion of spaces with spaces and so did the shoppers. They had three hours free and that worked fine and meant we had created 240 free car parking spaces.

"The first thing we knew about it was when the signs went up in the car park which is not democratic and just flies in the face of localism, we didn't have any say in this.

"We are having enough trouble keeping viable businesses, so this will kill Sunningdale."

He added his fears that shoppers will choose to visit Longacres in Bagshot, The Meadows in Camberley and The Peel Centre in Bracknell to avoid paying to park.

He also raised concerns that the set-up will not be 'commercially viable', because the council will need to implement a machine, change the current signage, send someone down to collect the cash and have someone on site to police the charges.

Nigel Lewis, owner of butchers Lewis of Sunningdale, said: "It's diabolical. The last thing we need is to start charging people and there is already a lack of parking.

"The whole crux is if there isn't anywhere to park, you aren't going to attract business to the village.

"It's a simple equation, no parking means no business."

Cllr Colin Rayner, cabinet member for highway, transport and flooding at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, said: "We wish we didn't have to do this but it is mainly to stop misuse of the car parks, as people were leaving their cars there all day which doesn't actually aid the workers at all."

He added parking charges are already in place in Datchet, Maidenhead and Windsor.