A petition against plans to end the parking discount for Royal Borough Advantage Card holders has now reached more than 4,000 signatures, writes James Bagley.

It was set up Jacob Cotterill - a former local Government election candidate in the Royal Borough - and raised 3,000 names within 24 hours. Now the number is up to 4,276.

Opposition councillors have been encouraging people to sign the petition via social media and have called for equal town centre car parking prices across the Borough as Windsor residents will be hit the hardest if advantage cards are scrapped.

Windsor's River Street car park costs £5 for one hour (£1.50 with advantage card) compared to Nicholson’s car park in Maidenhead which is £2.30 for two hours (£1.20 with advantage card).

Opposition councillor, Jon Davey (West Windsor Residents’ Association: Independent), said: “Windsor is being taken advantage of and the prices need to be reduced.

“Now that they are going to take away the advantage card, we need to make car parking prices the same across the Borough.”

The ruling Tories of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council are considering cutting the discount among other services to make £6 million worth of savings in order to balance its 2020/21 budget.

Councillor Amy Tisi, Liberal Democrat: Clewer East, said: “People really care about this. It affects carers, people who work in the town centre, shift workers, volunteers and anyone who objects to paying tourist prices to visit their own town.

“We said from the start that this would be a deeply unpopular move.”

The petition closes on March 1 and can be found here- https://petitions.rbwm.gov.uk/Parking-subsidy/