FURIOUS out-of-town workers have reacted angrily to plans to scrap long-stay parking spaces in Kendal's main car-park.

People who staff the town's shops, banks and public services have already written strongly worded letters to South Lakeland District Council objecting to a decision to remove 156 long-stay parking places from the Westmorland Shopping Centre multi-storey car-park prior to the start of today's three-week public consultation on the proposal.

They are accusing council planners of putting the needs of occasional visitors before those of people who work and spend money in Kendal every day and are asking where they are expected to park once "pay on foot" is introduced on the car-park in the spring.

Most of those complaining are permit-holders who have paid £130-a-year for unlimited parking in the town.

They claim the council has advised them to use car parks in Blackhall Road, Beezon Fields and behind the John Boste Club in Gillinggate.

Sue Clives, a clerical worker at the Benefits Agency in Blackhall Road, who travels into Kendal from New Hutton, said parking at these suggested places was very limited.

She added: "If we are going to be displaced when all these places in the Westmorland Shopping Centre disappear there are going to be a lot of working people driving round and round Kendal looking for parking places that don't exist."

The situation looks set to worsen when limited waiting times for non-residents, which are already in place in Union Street, Caroline Street and Dowker Lane, are extended into parts of Burneside Road and the Greenside and Fellside area.

Kendal Traffic Steering Group chairman Coun Dave Clarke said residents in Fellside were due to be leafleted about the changes within weeks and any residential areas interested in having limited waiting times could have them introduced as part of the Kendal Traffic Plan.

Spaces will also be lost on New Road car-park if environmental improvements and coach parking are introduced.

SLDC has drawn up early preliminary sketches for a landscaping scheme and public consultation should take place in spring.

Rose Wilkinson, from Hornby, who also works at the Benefits Agency, described the shopping-centre changes as "a big inconvenience".

"I buy my lunch here every day and spend money here every day," she said.

"The council is putting people who are here for a holiday, or who come now and again to shop, before people who work here."

Ruth Burrell, of Options dress shop, starts work at 10am by which time she believes all the spaces will have gone.

"There are 156 spaces going, where are those people going to go to?" she said.

"After 9.30am the car-parks are all full."

Carole Roberts, from Lancaster, assistant manager of the Nat West Bank in Elephant Yard, said the changes posed a danger for women on their own, and particularly working in financial industries, who would have to walk longer distances to their cars at night.

SLDC believes cutting long-stay spaces will reduce congestion caused by people driving round in search of parking and will help the town's economy.

And SLDC's head of highways and public services Morris Brundrett told the Gazette that in the past few months fewer commuters were parking in the multi-storey because major employers have shed jobs.

"We are not pushing out, or trying to push out, regular commuters," he said.

"I recognise that they need somewhere to park.

We do believe that there are available spaces in peripheral areas.

We want to encourage people to those areas who are, arguably, there most of the day."

He added that those who were complaining had enjoyed the benefit of long-stay parking in a prime position at fairly low cost.

"Once pay-on-foot is in place there is nothing to prevent them using the car-park eight hours a day," he said.

"The only difference is that they will have to pay a more realistic charge."

Under the projected pay-on-foot charges, 48 weeks' of daily eight-hour parking is likely to cost £ 720.

Kendal town centre manager Maria Appleton said the changes were being made because there was a greater need for short-stay parking in the town.

"There are two sides to the argument.

People who park long-stay also spend money in the town but visitors cannot find spaces because they are not familiar with the town so the spaces should be freed up for the shoppers.

The others will just have to walk a few minutes more to a car-park further out.

"