'WE don't want them!' — that was the strident message given to Devon County Council on Tuesday, regarding proposals to install parking meters in Tavistock town centre.

County cabinet member for highways Cllr Stuart Hughes and highways officer Lester Wilmington, were at a meeting of the town council to answer questions on the controversial proposals, which have been open for public consultation since the middle of November.

Town mayor Cllr David Whitcomb told them: 'We have had a public meeting and people in Tavistock are very, very unhappy about this. The commercial sector of the town is also very unhappy. We are a unique town. We are a World Heritage Site and that must have a bearing. My members have given their very strong views on this too — we just don't want them!'

Cllr Harry Smith questioned the county's 'streamlined' consultation method, which involved advertising the proposed amendments to the town's traffic orders after its cabinet had decided to press ahead with the installation of parking pay and display meters as soon as it could.

'Publicising the orders first, prior to discussing it with the people, the council which represents them and the commercial sector, is extremely bad practise, particularly as we are supposed to be practising bottom-up government — this is top-down dictatorship,' said Cllr Smith.

Cllr Anne Johnson said: 'I am really very cross about the lack of proper consultation about this, with both the town council and the people of Tavistock. Yet again, Tavistock has been shown to be just too far from Exeter. We have been given a number of different figures and costs, but they are all muddled and we need some clarity.'

Cllr Caroline Leverett questioned the county's belief that installing parking meters would make enforcement more efficient:?'Presumably, civil enforcement officers are salaried and don't work on commission, so it shouldn't matter if they go down a street ten times or once. If they are doing such a good job, as we all believe, why do we need parking meters?'

Cllr Leverett also questioned why the county had ordered the meters before the consultation had even started.

Cllr Philip Sanders said there were already 'appalling examples of the installation of signage' in Tavistock, where granite pavements had been 'hacked into'. He wanted reassurance that the county's archaeologist was fully involved in the parking meter proposals.

Cllr Stuart Hughes said the consultation process had been streamlined because it had proved 'too slow' when first launched in Seaton. The whole idea about on-street pay and display was to speed up the operation of the civil enforcement officers, so they didn't have to visit cars twice to monitor them.'

Cllr Hughes said the parking meter project had 'been around since July 2009' — long before the new government's localism policy was launched.

He said the county proposed there should be 30 minutes free on-street-parking, as opposed to the current hour. If the council felt an hour would be more acceptable, that could be investigated — although Mr Wilmington later admitted this would not 'balance the books'.

Cllr Hughes offered to work with the town council to come up with a 'comprehensive traffic management plan', which could include residents' parking schemes.

Cllr Mandy Govier said: 'If you are now saying we can have free parking for an hour, we don't actually need your parking meters.

'Maybe we could look at controlling parking in Tavistock ourselves, as part of the chamber's BID process.'

The council agreed to write to Cllr Hughes, taking up his offer of working up a traffic management scheme involving residents' parking and free on-street parking for an hour.

Devon County Council's cabinet is to make a decision on pay and display parking in market towns at its meeting on Wednesday January 12.