A West Sussex council leader has described proposals for happy hours free parking for residents as “complete twaddle”.

Adur District Council leader Neil Parkin has accused rival Liberal Democrats of “gross hypocrisy” over their proposals for two hours of free parking in all council car parks.

Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for East Worthing and Shoreham Jemima Bland has written to the council asking it to consider re-introducing a modified version of the “parking disk” system it used to operate.

The campaign is being supported by Liberal Democrat members across the Adur District, who are delivering thousands of newsletters to local homes calling for the change.

Campaign organisers claim each resident would typically save about £78 a year - enough to buy 30 litres of unleaded petrol.

Ms Bland said: “When everybody is looking for ways to save money, it's right that local people should have two happy hours when they don't have to worry about paying to park.”

But Coun Parkin hit back at the proposal saying the previous free parking scheme was one of the first things his administration scrapped because it cost the authority £250,000 a year.

He said: “Worthing Liberal Democrat group leader Alan Rice stood up in council chamber in Worthing objected to using council taxpayers' money to subsidise car parks so it's gross hypocrisy he is now backing this in Adur a couple of weeks later.

“We only charge 50p an hour at the moment while supermarkets such as Tesco offer free parking for customers.

“I consider it immoral to ask old ladies and families paying council tax, and who can't afford to run a car, to subsidise car users to park.”