Outraged traders and townspeople have reacted angrily to a report leaked to the Gazette which reveals a working group of district councillors has recommended a jump in car parking charges.

They say their fierce opposition to the increases seems to have fallen on deaf ears as the report recommends the price hike go ahead in the Station Road car park.

Malmesbury town councillors and Nigel Alden-Fenn, a training officer at Lux Traffic Controls in Station Road car park have opposed the district council's controversial plan to raise £500,000 by introducing charges in all district owned car parks.

In Malmesbury, the charges mean people would pay £4 a day to park for more than four hours in the long-stay car park in Station Road, while in the Cross Hayes short-stay car park, drivers would pay 25p more for the first hour and an extra £1 for two hours.

Alan Woodward, president of Malmesbury's Chamber of Commerce said the district council was hell-bent on making money from Malmesbury people.

Mr Woodward said: "This is an extra levy to pay for the squandering of funds by the district council. We wasted two hours discussing it."

Mr Alden-Fenn, from Reeds Farm in Malmesbury, also criticised the consultation process. "I firmly believe they took the decision before the consultation. The district council will charge us for the privilege of working in Malmesbury," he said.

Liberal Democrat district councillor Patrick Goldstone, who is also a town councillor and on the car parking working group, said he would not be supporting any charges in the long-stay car park until the county council dropped its insistence that drivers be charged for the first hour in the Cross Hayes area as it's not a highway.