PARKING prices have divided a shopping parade with customers forced to pay more than three times as much on one side than the other.

Now the enhancement works on the Broadway, in Loughton, have finished, customers parking on Vere Road must pay £9 for the day while customers for the opposite side pay only £2.80 to park in Burton Road.

The discrepancy has angered the one half of the parade affected by the price rise, particularly as parking on Saturday is free in Burton Road and paid-for in Vere Road.

Beryl Sullivan, owner of the Party Shop, said: “Over there it's free parking on a Saturday, here you have to pay. Park all day and it's £9. We have got staff who can't afford to pay that.

“It's rather unfair people have to pay to park on a street where you didn't used to pay. It's just bloody-mindedness.

“I don't know why they've done it. They said originally it was to stop commuters parking all day, which is fair enough, but it's closer to the station over there. They should have done it the other way round.”

Owner of Flower Elegance Linda Knight said: “I think everybody's a bit miffed. It's a lot more expensive this side. Even the market traders don't understand why they've done what they've done. It's weird.

“Because it's £9 round the back, we sometimes just tell people stay there and we'll run the flowers out to you.”

The Broadway Enhancement Scheme has seen new pavements, lighting and road surfacing put in to spruce up the shopping parade, but it has also reduced the number of parking spaces.

Blow Your Top hairdressers owner Arnold Burman said: “We are paying good rates and people have to pay on Saturday to park. It doesn't make sense.

They've taken over 30 parking space away, and if you want to park across the road it's £2.80, here it's £9. I'm absolutely furious.”

A spokesman for Epping Forest District Council said: "For the benefit of The Broadway it is important to provide long stay and short stay carparks. Shoppers need a place to park for a short period of time whilst people who work in the area and commuters need somewhere to park all day.

"As part of the enhancement works carried out at The Broadway, members of the council agreed to turn Vere Road car park into a short stay pay and display car park for shoppers and Burton Road into a long stay pay and display car park for people wishing to stay in the area for longer than three hours.

"Both car parks charge only 10p to park for half an hour and The Broadway provides free parking spaces for up to an hour. "