WEST Devon has been ?hit? with a new Whitehall directive instructing it to prepare to scrap the pound and introduce the euro, according to the area?s Conservative parliamentary spokesman Geoffrey Cox.

He said the Treasury and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have issued new guidelines advising local councils to prepare for the euro and that ?significant resources? would be needed for the currency changeover.

Mr Cox said the guidance advises councils that they may wish to increase car parking charges, fines and charges for other council-run services, using a euro changeover to mask ?price revisions?.

He said: ?At a time when council taxes in Devon are going through the roof, the Government is burdening us with yet more red-tape.

?Despite there being no demand to scrap the pound and the Government?s own assessment conceding it would damage our economy, Whitehall bureaucrats are secretly telling councils how to issue council tax bills and car parking charges in euros.?

Mr Cox, who is a firm opponent of Britain joining the euro, claimed scrapping the pound would mean higher prices and that the Government guidance admitted that a euro changeover could be used to increase council charges under a process it calls ?smoothing?.

Mr Cox said the Treasury and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister guidance on Euro Preparations was issued in June 2003 for all local councils in the UK.

West Devon Borough treasurer Lesley Halton confirmed the guidance had been received, but said the council was doing nothing to plan for the euro at the moment.

There would be a period of 24 to 30 months between a referendum in favour of the euro and the currency?s introduction, she said.

The council reviewed its car parking charges each year, she added.