Traders paraded a wreath to mark a St Valentine's Day "massacre" of businesses as councillors met to agree parking permit charges.

Brighton and Hove Council is planning to introduce a residents' parking scheme around the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Kemp Town, Brighton, next month as part of its traffic management strategy for the town.

At Brighton Town Hall, traders presented the council with a rose-covered cross to highlight their fears that the new scheme will damage business. The highways committee was meeting to fix a charge for business permits and to agree that there should be no limit for the numbers granted to eligible firms.

Tory councillors opposed plans to charge firms £80 per annual permit, or £25 per quarter, and said businesses were being driven out of town by high parking costs. But the Labour majority agreed the charge.

For the first year, residents will not have to pay for permits because of a subsidy by Brighton Health Care NHS Trust. Opposition leader Geoffrey Theobald said: "It will only be £80 a year until the NHS money runs out. Then it will be £160 or even £200 a year.

"This scheme is a very poor deal. We are trying to create a business environment, but this is banging business on its head. The scheme has been railroaded through by one party."

Tory highways spokesman Garry Peltzer Dunn said Brighton and Hove was applying for city status and added: "It's The Place To Be - if you can find a place."

But cabinet environment spokesman John Ballance said: "We have been working with residents in a monitoring group and I hope we have been able to address many of their concerns."

He said the group would meet again when the scheme was in operation. Before the meeting, a group of protesters demonstrated outside the town hall.

Russell Hicks, chairman of the Campaign for a Better Brighton and Hove, said many traders could be forced out of business. He said: "The wreath symbolises a St Valentine's Day massacre of businesses in Kemp Town. Some are talking of having to close if this goes ahead."

Mr Hicks said of 90 businesses consulted by the campaign, the reaction to the proposed scheme ranged from "furious to despondent".

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