LAUNCESTON'S Liberal Democrat Councillors called on Cornwall Council on Tuesday to take urgent action to sort out the system of parking permits in North

Cornwall.

From today (Thursday), most parking permits will no longer be available for sale in the One Stop Shop Network. In addition, the popular 'North Cornwall' permit will be withdrawn from sale.

A review has been started into the sale of permits but this is not likely to be completed for some months and any recommendations unlikely to take effect until 2011.

Councillors Alex Folkes and Sasha Gillard-Loft questioned Council Cabinet members on the subject and called for the immediate reintroduction of popular services.

"The council has completely botched the issue of parking permits," said Cllr Folkes, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Launceston Central. "Local residents will no longer be able to get them from One Stop Shops in five or ten minutes, as they are used to, and the hugely popular North Cornwall permit has been replaced with a massively expensive permit that covers the whole of Cornwall."

"One Stop Shops in the former North Cornwall District Council area have successfully sold permits over the counter for some time. To centralise the system in St Austell  and end local sales is a retrograde step which will harm local motorists. The council has made a concession in allowing motorists to use out of date permits while applications are processed, but this is far from ideal."

He added: "Our local One Stop Shop staff are used to and happy to continue selling permits as they are a vital service to local motorists. I will be calling on the Council to abandon their plans to end over the counter sales even at this eleventh hour."

Cllr Sasha Gillard-Loft (Launceston South) added: "There are at least 372 people who use the North Cornwall permit and they will all be hit by the plan to cut this service. They will now be forced to buy either a car park specific permit or to pay £1,200 for a permit the allows them to park in any Cornish car park. The vast majority of North Cornwall permit holders don't need to be able to park in Helston, St Ives or Redruth and

resent the idea of paying so much for a service they will never use.

"The majority of North Cornwall permit holders are business people whose firms will suffer if this permit is withdrawn. I know from talking to colleagues from all Council groups that this issue is causing annoyance across Cornwall.

"I will be asking the council why, when a review is likely to recommend the introduction of a local scheme, they cannot hold off making these changes until the review is completed. Causing such disruption when the system is likely to be changed again in a year is madness and does the council no credit."